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STORIES AND TALES 


FROM THE 

Animal World 


Bvy 

EMMA M. C. GREENLEAF 

REDLANDS, CALIFORNIA 



EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
BOSTON 


New York 


Chicago 


San Francisco 


THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

JUN. S 1902 

COPVRIQHT ENTRY 

O'X 

CLASS ^XXa No. 

3 ^ 076 , 

COPY B. 








Copyrighted 

By EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1901 



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CONTENTS. 


Tommy Hears a Bear Story 
War Horses . . . . . ... 

Some Famous War Horses .... 
Grandfather Longlegs’ Complaint . 

The Black Rooster . . . • . 

An Ant Story 

The Owl ....... 

- Mother-love ....... 

Hiawatha . . . . . . . 

The Training of Brown Be^s .... 

The Big Mountain apdjhe Little Squirrel . 
The Fox and 'the Wolf . . " . 

But a Dog for Love ..... 

General Grant’s Kindness to Horses 
What Happened at the Ostrich Farm . 

What Happened at the Ostrich Farm. Part 11. 
A Day with a Puma ..... 

Four Little Woodchucks . . ' . 

Hiawatha ....... 

Elephant Stories . . 

Kotik 

How Pun to Cooked 

Parry ....... 

Old Swayback ...... 

Charles Dickens’ Cats .... 

Harry’s Pony ....... 

The Quail Mother ..... 

A Grizzly 

What the Twins Found Out 

As the Crow Heard It 

A Fox F’able 

Punchinello ....... 

The Hare and the Tortoise 

The Wolf Pack 

Story of the Pied Piper .... 

F'eathered Friends ...... 

The School for Rats ..... 

A Picnic in Bird Society 

Homeless Tip Finds a Home 


Page 


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13 

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29 

38 

44 

49 

52 

53 

63 

64 
69 
76 

79 

88 

93 


100 

1 12 

113 

119 

129 

133 

140 

149 

153 

159 

163 

168 


175 


184 


195 

199 


202 

213 

220 

224 

229 

239 


3 


PREFACE. 


Nobody likes to be always learning something. Even 
Solomon was fain to say at the end, “ And much study is a 
weariness to the flesh.” 

Beef and whole-wheat bread are, undoubtedly, muscle- 
builders, but a delicate pudding, or nuts and raisins, or an 
ice-cream are very pleasant at the end of a dinner, and with- 
out them we feel defrauded of something that is the cherished 
heritage of civilized man. 

Perhaps education has no better purpose than to create a 
hunger for knowledge and an absorbing desire to learn ; but 
do you, my grown-up reader, ever feel in such mood that 
philosophy and abstruse poetry and logic pall upon your 
intellectual taste? Do you sometimes feel in such mood 
that only a fascinating monthly magazine or an absorbing 
short story is the measure of your receptive powers? 

Everybody must; everybody does ; and children more than 
any others. Children do grow, sometimes, just a little 
tired of plumule and radicle, and vertical lines, and Charles 
and Mary Lamb ; while the teacher and the mother, finding 
that so much time is needed to explain and illustrate, often 
feel that the child’s reading would be far better if he read 
much more and they explained much less. 


4 


PREFACE. 


5 


I once heard a second grade class in a Chicago school 
reading an easy “ ^sop’s Fables” as well as you or I could. 

“ How in the world did you get second-year children to 
read like this?” I asked the teacher. 

“ By having these delightful books which they like — no, 
love ; for, truly, that is their feeling for these fables,” she 
replied. “ Not a child ever looks around for something else 
to do when we read these stories. They scarcely raise their 
eyes from the page, they are so absorbed in them. They 
have learned to read because they like to read, and, really, 
would like to be reading most of the time, if other books 
were as interesting as these are.” 

Most children like stories about animals. What the 
children like, the mother likes, the teacher likes. If, happily, 
the teacher, the mother, the child like these stories, new and 
old, all is well. 

E. M. C. G 








<• ,a. ^ Wi— WiP^ 




STORIES AND TALES 

FROM THE 

ANIMAL WORLD. 


TOMMY HEARS A BEAR STORY. 

Tommy was one of those little boys who do 
not like to mind. He often thought how nice 
it would be if he were a kitten or a puppy and 
could do just what he pleased all day, and 
never have to mind any one. You see Tommy 
had never really lived with animals and he did 
not know that kittens and puppies are cuffed 
and spanked and trained by their mothers in 


7 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


a very systematic fashion; but he tnust have 
known, though perhaps he forgot it when he 
wished he was one, that a puppy has to be 
trained by his master, and has to learn not to 
chase the chickens, not to tear the hammock 
pillows into bits, not to jump up on people 
and spoil their clothes, not to bark at every- 
body, and a great many other nots beside ; 
but still Tommy kept thinking that if he were 
a kitten, or a puppy, or a little bear cub, or a 
colt, he would never have to mind. 

By and by, when he was eight years old. 
Tommy’s father and mother went to Yellow- 
stone Park and spent a number of days there. 

When they came home. Tommy’s mother 
told him this true story : 

“ Papa and I went one day to see ‘Old Faith- 
ful’ spout.” 

“ What is ‘ Old Faithful ’ ? ” asked Tommy. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


9 


“ It is a geyser that throws a stream of hot 
water high in the air every hour, day and 
night, all the year round ; because it has never 
been known to fail in spouting at the right 
time, it is called ‘ Old Faithful/ Papa and I 
were hungry and went to a little house near 
the geyser to get a lunch. The man who 
keeps the house told us about a bear that used 
to come into his kitchen every day to get 
food/’ 

“Was it a wild bear?” asked Tommy, with 
wide-open eyes. 

“ Yes ; it lived in the great park and went 
about where it pleased, but it would not attack 
people unless to defend itself. 

“ The bear came into the yard back of the 
house for several days, and the man threw 
food to her. She ate some of it, and carried 
the remainder away into the woods. Each 


10 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


day she came nearer and nearer to the kitchen 
door, and finally she came in regularly and ate 
food out of the man’s hand, and then walked 
off, taking what was left with her.” 



“ What did she carry it away for? ” 

“ Can’t you guess ? ” 

“ Maybe she had some little bears waiting 
for it out in the woods.” 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


11 


“ Yes, that is what the man thought. Well, 
one day she came as usual, and after she had 
eaten, started off with a generous supper for 
her little children. 

“ In a second or two the man heard her 
growl. He ran to the door 
and saw the mother bear 
cuffing and spanking two 
cubs, and driving them back 
into the woods. She had 
dropped their supper on the 
ground, and it lay there while 
she was gone for about half 
an hour. Then she came 
back, walked into the kitchen, 
and sat there for two whole hours before she 
would carry those cubs their supper. I sup- 
pose they had not minded her, and she was 
punishing them by letting them go hungry for 




12 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


a while. Probably she told them to wait at 
some spot in the woods until she came back. 
If they did not mind her they might wander off 
the wrong way some day, get lost, and starve. 
She knew, that for their own good, she must 
teach them to obey.” 

“ I wonder if all animals have to mind their 
mothers,” said Tommy. Maybe they don’t 
have any better times than children do; I 
believe I would rather be a boy, anyway; only 
not a girl under any con-sid-er-a-tionl' and 
Tommy ran off to bed, where he dreamed of 
geysers and bears and mamma and papa, all 
in a jumble. 




WAR HORSES. 

Dan and Chief have carried their masters to 
the very top of Mount Orange. “It was a 
fine ride,” their masters said. Perhaps the 
horses thought it was fine, too. They lifted 
their heads and sniffed the clear, pure air and 
snorted and stepped gaily along the mountain 
path and looked out over the beautiful land- 
scape. They seemed to enjoy it as much as 
people do. They had come home just at 


13 




A CHARGER. * 


14 










ANIMAL WORLD. 


15 


dark, had eaten their supper, and now, while 
their masters smoked, they were having a 
quiet talk. 

“ Did you hear what my master said about 
going to the war?” asked Chief. 

“Yes,” answered Dan; “he said he would 
like nothing better than to take you and join 
the cavalry troop. How would you like it ? ” 

“ I am always ready to go where my master 
goes,” said Chief, “ but I have heard that war is 
even more dangerous for horses than for men.” 

“ Who told you that war is so dangerous ? ” 
asked Dan. 

“ You remember when master rode me to 
that place where all the old soldiers had a 
great meeting, don’t you ? It was there I was 
put into a stall next to an old war horse and 
he talked about his war days all the time we 
were together.” 


16 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


“ Did he say that war is very disagreeable 
for horses?” 

“O, yes; he said if horses could talk in man 
language instead of horse language it would 
be best to send a great many of them to 
Washington to beg the government not to 
have another war. He said that when horses 
went to war they could not have as good food 
as they were used to having at home, and 
often they had very little food of any kind ; the 
change of climate sometimes made them sick 
and the whizzing bullets frightened horses as 
much as they frightened men. He said horses^ 
never got any credit for the splendid help they 
gave in long marches and in bloody battles. 
The dispatches never said, ‘ The horses helped 
nobly ’ ; when really, if it had not been for the 
gallant bearing of the steeds many a battle 
would have been lost.” 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


17 


“ Thousands of them, he said, gave their 
humble lives in duty to their masters. No, 
Dan, I don’t want to go to the war but if 
master takes me I shall carry him faithfully 
wherever he goes so long as I live.” 

“ I hope you won’t have to go,” said Dan, as 
he put his head over Chief’s neck, which was 
his way of hugging his good friend; then they 
both lay down and went to sleep. 




SOME FAMOUS WAR HORSES. 

Copenhagen was the name of the chestnut 
horse which the great Duke of Wellington 
rode in the battle of Waterloo. The Duke 
paid two thousand dollars for him. In that 
famous fight he and the Duke were without 


18 


ANIMAT. WORLD. 


19 


rest for eighteen hours. They won the battle, 
as you know. 

When the war was ended, Copenhagen was 
sent to the Duke s home in England to take 
his ease. Hundreds of people came to look at 
him. They would say to the groom, “ I will 
give you some money for a few hairs out of 
his mane or tail.” I suppose they wanted 
the hair to put in a glass case on the mantel 
or on the center table. The groom was willing 
to make a few extra shillings, and poor Copen- 
hagen had to submit to being pulled and 
clipped nearly every day. When at last some 
one told the Duke about it, he ordered a sort 
of screened cage to be made for him. It was 
large and cool and comfortable. People could 
see him but they could not get near enough to 
him to pull out a relic. He lived a very 
happy life in his screened house, and died at a 


20 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


green old age. The Duke had a fine painting 
of Copenhagen and he hung it where he could 
look at it every day. 

They buried the famous horse on the Dukes 
estate, and a tombstone marks the spot where 
he lies. Travelers stop there and bend over 
the stone to read this word — “ Copenhagen^ 

Washington’s Horses. 

Gen. George Washington had several fine 
war horses. Perhaps you have seen a painting 
of him sitting on “ Dolly,” a very handsome 
white horse. 

When Lord Cornwallis surrendered his 
army to him at Yorktown, the General rode a 
sober, brown horse. After the surrender all 
the soldiers went to their homes, for the war 
was over. Washington’s brown horse went 
with his master to Mount Vernon. There he 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


21 


had an easy time grazing in the pleasant fields 
that border the Potomac. 

When Washington died, heavy mourning 
robes were put upon the horse, and he followed 
behind the coffin of his dead master. After 
that, so long as he lived, he had nothing to do 
but roam over the pastures, visit with other 
horses, and think about the battles he had 
helped to win. 

Sheridan’s Black Horse. 

One of the best-known war horses is 
General Sheridan’s black “ Winchester.” 
There had been a fight near Cedar Creek in 
Virginia, and the enemy had been defeated 
and retreated toward the south. Sheridan had 
no idea that they would return, and he 
went to Washington to consult President 
Lincoln. On his way back he stopped at 


22 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


Winchester, which was twenty miles from 
Cedar Creek. Early in the morning he heard 
the rumble of distant cannon ; what could it 
mean ? He listened with his ear to the 
ground — yes, it was the roar of war, and it 
came from where the army had been left. 

He sprang into the saddle, and the black 
horse was off and down the road like a racer. 
Woods and fields and fences seemed to fly 
"towards them, so fast were they going, but 
never once did “ Winchester ” falter. Perhaps 
he was as anxious as his master to get into the 
battle. The noble black was gray with foam 
when they met the retreating army. 

The attack had been so unexpected that the 
soldiers were not ready for it, and they were 
retreating. The horse and his rider shot into 
the lines, while Sheridan waved his sword high 
over his head and called out, '‘Turn round. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


23 


boys, weWe going back!'' And they turned 
round at their leaders call and went back, 
driving the enemy before them. How could 
an army be beaten with such a leader on such 
a horse ? In the open squares and parks of 
many of our large cities you will often see a 
statue of General Sheridan on his noble black 
horse, Winchester. 




GRANDFATHER LONGLEGS’ 
COMPLAINT. 

Says Grandfather Longlegs to the cricket, 
“Why is it that everybody makes fun of mef 
Says the cricket to Grandfather Longlegs, 
“ Oh, just because people are jolly and full 
of fun ; they laugh at everything.’' 

Says Grandfather Longlegs to the cricket, 
“ No, that’s not the reason. They don’t laugh 

24 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


25 


at you. The children hold me by one leg and 
say, ‘Tell us which way the cows are, Daddy 
Longlegs.’ I don’t watch the cows and I 
don’t know where they go ; it’s all I can do to 
keep close watch for the insects I eat.” 

Says the cricket to Grandfather Longlegs, 
“ If people do laugh at you, they must like 
you ; because they never kill you as they do 
some things that are around the house and 
the porches ; but your long legs and your 
small body do look — well — a little pecu- 
liar, and perhaps it makes them laugh to 
see you.” 

Says Grandfather Longlegs to the cricket, 
“T/y legs long? My patience! I have 
cousins down near the Gulf of Mexico whose 
legs are nearly three times as long as mine. 

“ The children call me ‘ Grandpa Graybeard,’ 
too, and I’ve no beard at all to speak of. I 


26 


ANIMAL WORLD. 



wish people would treat me with respect as 
they do you.” 

Says the cricket to Grandfather Longlegs, 
“ Oh, well, everybody should be happy and con- 
tent with things as they are ; I am always 
merry and ready to sing a song at any 
minute.” 

Says Grandfather Longlegs to the cricket, 
“Yes, and I believe the reason people don’t 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


27 



laugh at you is because you have a good voice 
for singing. I wish I had, but I don’t know 
Do from Sol and if I did, I 
couldn’t sing it, as I’ve no 
voice. 

“The other evening when 
the madam came into the kitchen, she said, 
the very first thing, ‘ Oh, there’s a cricket sing- 
ing ! we’ll be sure to have some good luck. I 
must put out something for it to eat so that it 
will stay.’ 

“ But the next morning when / fell from the 
whisk broom where I was hiding, and hap- 
pened to strike on her neck she called out, ‘ Oh, 
somebody take this Grandfather off, quick, and 
throw him out of the window ! ’ So they threw 
me out and I just escaped being swallowed by 
a bird that was flying toward the cherry trees. 
Now, everybody knows that I never bite, and 


28 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


what possible harm could it do for me to walk 
a few steps on her neck, especially when I was 
going off as fast as I could, too? ” 

Says the cricket to Grandfather Longlegs, 
“ If I were you I wouldn’t think of my miseries 
all the time. It makes you gloomy. Better 
think how lucky it is that people don’t hate 
you and kill you, but let you live in peace.” 



THE BLACK ROOSTER. 

The Black Rooster was a goose ; that is, he 
would have been a goose if he hadn’t been a 
rooster. As it was, his mistress said that he 
was the biggest goose of a rooster she ever saw. 

When she took out a nice dish of hot food 
to throw to the chickens, that rooster would 
run and hide just as if the mistress had been 
a griffin or an ogre, and he would try to get 


29 







30 




ANIMAL WORLD. 


31 


all the hens to follow him. If he had been 
such a protector as the head of a hen-house 
ought to be, he would have stood right at the 
front when the mistress came with the food 
and he would have urged the chickens to come 
forward and help themselves, but he didn’t; he 
just turned and ran every time, like a great 
goose, to be sure. 

One night, when the hens and the sheep and 
the little calf and the cows and horses were all 
asleep in the yard and barn, what should that 
foolish black rooster do but begin to flutter 
and fidget and fuss until he had waked up 
every hen on the roost. “ What’s the matter ? 
Oh, what’s the matter ? ” they began to cackle, 
for they were afraid a sly fox or a coyote might 
be after them. 

The rooster squeezed himself back into the 
farthest corner, behind all the others, and then 


32 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


he whispered, “ I heard a noise out there and 
I think an Indian with a gun is after us.” 

“Oh, dear, dear me! what can we do?” 
cackled all the frightened hens; “where can 
we hide ? ” 

By this time their noise had wakened a 
young lambkin of the flock in a pen close by, 
and he called out to know what was the 
matter. 

“ Oh, oh, oh ! ” squawked chattering Brown 
Banty. “There is an Indian out here who 
wants to kill us all.” 

“ Did you see him ? ” asked lambkin. 

“ No, it’s too dark to see, but I’m sure he’s 
there, for Black Rooster said so. Oh! I’m 
frightened almost to death.” 

“ Mother, mother, sisters, uncles, every- 
body,” bleated lambkin, “ wake up, quick 1 
Brown Banty says that Black Rooster saw an 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


33 


Indian out here, and weVe all going to be 
killed.” 

“B-a-a-a, ba, ba-a-a,” 
bleated the whole flock, 
weVe all going to be 
killed.” 

“ Why are you sheep 
making such a noise in the middle of the 
night ? ” asked the sleepy cow, as she slowly 
rose to her feet. 

“ Dear, good cow,” answered the big bell- 
wether of the flock, “ Horny’s lambkin says 
that Brown Banty is twisting her toes and 
crying because Black Rooster saw an Indian 
who has a gun and wants to kill us all. Oh, 
dear, good cow, won’t you run out and hook 
him and save our lives ? ” 

“Oh, dear, no !” said Madam Cow quickly; 
“ he might have a lasso and catch me, “ but 



34 


ANIMAL WORLD. 



ril ask the horses to go out and kick him. 
Holloa, Dolly and Dan, wake up, wake up ! 

Bellwether says 
that Horny’s lamb- 
kin is frightened 
nearly to death be- 
cause Brown Banty cackled to them that Black 
Rooster saw an Indian who has a gun and 
wants to kill us; can’t you break your halters 
and run out and kick the Indian and break his 
bones so that he can’t shoot us ? ” 

“No,” said Dolly — Dolly always spoke 
before Dan had a chance — “ no, we can’t 
break our halters ; they’re new ones and very 
strong, but I’ll kick the side of the barn until 
master comes out to see what’s the matter. I 
know he’ll come for I’ve done it before, just 
for fun. He’ll shoot the Indian.” 

So Dolly began to kick. Thump, bump. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


35 


thump, bump, went her lively heels, and sure 
enough her master soon came out with a 
lantern to see what was the matter. 

“Dan, Dolly, stop that kicking; why are 
you making such a racket when we want to 
sleep ? ” he said. 

Dan turned his head and looked at the 
master out of his great eyes, but Dolly began, 
as usual, to talk. 

“ Good master, we called you out on behalf 
of all the animals in the yard and barn. They 
are in a great fright. Bossy cow waked us 
out of our sleep to beg that we would go out 
and kick an Indian who has a gun and wants 
to kill us.” 

“ Who said so ? ” asked the master. 

“ Black Rooster told Brown Banty, and she 
told Horny s lambkin, and lambkin roused all 
the flock ; they began to make a great noise, 


36 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


and that started Bossy cow and she waked us 
up.” 

Straightway the master walked to the 
chicken house. 

“ Black Rooster,” said he, “ did you see an 
Indian ? ” 

“ N-o, I didn’t see one,” answered the rooster, 
much vexed to think he was asked. 

“ Did you hear an Indian ?” 

“ I heard somethingl' said the foolish fellow, 
in a low tone. 

The master lifted his lantern and looked 
him straight in the eye. “ It’s just as the 
mistress said — you are the biggest goose of 
a rooster that ever was seen. What you heard 
was probably the cannon they are firing to 
celebrate Washington’s Birthday. You are a 
goose, sure enough,” and to-morrow” — but he 
did not hurt the rooster’s feelings by finishing 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


37 


the sentence. He marched back into the house 
and went to bed again. 

But the very next day that black rooster 
disappeared, and nobody, except the people at 
the dinner table, ever knew what became of 
him. 




AN ANT STORY. 

In the rose garden out in the front yard 
there was an ant-hill. One August morning, 
before the children had even thought of open- 
ing their eyes to wake up, a little ant had come 
to the door at the very top of the hill, and had 
stopped a second to smell which way she had 
better go. “Ah!” she said, ''bacon, as I’m an 


38 



ANIMAL WORLD. 


39 


ant ! ” and she set out on the double quick. 
Right up the walk between the roses, up the 
broad steps, across the front porch, across the 
side porch, down the side steps, through the 
low window, into the cellar, and up the pipe 
which led to the kitchen sink. 

Now if the plumber who put in the pipes 
had been a good, honest plumber and a good 
workman, the little ant could not have found 
any way to get into the sink; but she found 
an opening without any trouble, and truly, 
there was the bacon, several nice thin slices of 
it, laying on a plate ready for breakfast. 
Mamma had not come down stairs yet, and the 
coast was clear. 

How do you suppose that little ant with his 
very little nose ever smelt so far as that? 

She took one taste and I suppose she 
smacked her jaws together, and said, “ Lovely!” 


40 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


But she was not like that selfish Billy, who hid 
his birthday cake and would not offer a bit to 
anybody — not she. She turned and skurried 
down the sink-pipe, and back over the way she 
had come, as fast as an ant’s legs could go. 
When she got as far as the front porch she 
found three or four of her relatives running 
back and forth in the sunshine, playing “ Pris- 
oner s Base.” She ran up to each one of them 
and touched their heads with her head. I sup- 
pose ants talk with their heads instead of with 
their tongues, and I think probably she said to 
them, “ Bacon — bacon in the kitchen sink.” 

They left their game and made a bee line for 
the feast, while she went on to the ant-hill and 
told all the other relatives. 

It was about an hour later when papa and 
Ted and Kathleen came out of the front door 
to take an early wheel ride. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


41 


“Papa, O papa!” called Ted, whose eyes 
always saw everything, “ come quick, and look 
at the ants I ” 

And what do you think? There was a line 
of ants reaching all the way from the ant-hill, 
across the porch and down to the cellar win- 
dow. The line was about a quarter of an inch 
wide, and it looked like a long, wriggling black 
worm. 

“ Oh, I’ll get the insect powder,” said Kath- 
leen, and in a moment she was back with a box 
of yellow powder as fine as pepper. She scat- 
tered some of it right in the ant path. As 
soon as it fell on the little fellows they began 
to topple over and spin round and act for all 
the world as if they were drunk. Papa and 
the children laughed and laughed at their 
antics. Those who did not get any of the 
powder on themselves swung out to the right 


42 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


and made a new path outside of the powder, 
but they kept traveling straight toward the 
kitchen sink. 

“ Let’s follow the line and see what they are 
after,” said Ted. 

“ Not now; we must take our ride, my boy, 
or it will get too hot.” 

At eight o’clock they all sat down to 
mamma’s breakfast of strawberries, rice with 
cream, and rolls and coffee. 

“Where is the bacon, mamma?” asked 
Kathleen. I wonder if she could smell as far 
as the little ant could. 

“ In the stove,” said mamma; “when I came 
down I found it black with ants and the sink 
full of them, too; I forgot to put it in the ice- 
box or on top of the kitchen stove last night. 
Those two places are the only spots in the 
house that they do not get into. I don’t really 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


43 


know which are worse, the mice that got into 
the houses in the east, or these ants in 
California.” 

“ You don’t have to climb on the sofa or a 
chair when the ants come in, as you used to 
do when a mouse ran across the floor,” sug- 
gested Ted. 

“That is true,” said mamma thoughtfully; 
“ on the whole, I think I rather prefer the 
ants.” 

Note. — The insect powder fills the pores of the insect’s 
skin so that it cannot breathe. Most of them probably 
recover from the effects of it after a short time ; a few die. 
They dislike it exceedingly, and will never go very near a 
place where it is scattered. 




THE OWL. 

A rabbit went out one day to search for a 
cabbage field. He traveled so far from home 
before he could find one that darkness came 
on while he was still nibbling the juicy young 
leaves of the cabbages. Rain began to fall in 
torrents and the rabbit ran into a large hazel 
copse on the edge of a forest and curled up for 
the night. Soon he heard an owl calling out 


44 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


45 


from the woods: “Tu whoo, tu whoo, tu 
whoo,” was its dismal cry. 

“ Everything else is still,” thought the rab- 
bit; “of course the wind and the rain and the 
blowing trees make a noise, but all the animals 
have hidden in their dens or their burrows. 
Not a star shines; I cannot see even the wide 
black river flowing through the woods, but I 
know it is there for I hear it. Why does the 
owl keep making that dismal cry? I wonder 
if he is telling that evil has happened to some 
one out in the storm.” 

The rabbit remembered that he had seen 
the miller riding home from the mill just 
before night, with his little son on the horse in 
front of him. “ I hope they did not get 
drowned crossing the ford,” he said. “ I like 
them ; they never carry a gun to shoot rabbits.” 

He remembered that he had seen some jolly 


46 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


hunters riding fast in the rain. “ I wonder,” 
he thought, “ if the owl is hooting because 
harm has come to them.” 

He thought of the little children he had 
seen gathering flowers in the edge of the 
wood, just before the rain began to fall. One 
of them had seen him and had called out, “ Oh, 
look at the cunning Bunny!” “I hope they 
did not get lost,” said the rabbit. 

He did not know that the good miller was 
sitting safely in his chimney corner smoking a 
peaceful pipe, and that the hunters were gayly 
feasting on their game, and the little children 
were sleeping warm and rosy in their beds. 
Nor did he know that the owl kept calling his 
dismal, “ tu whoo, tu whoo, tu whoo,” just to 
hear his own voice. But he grew tired of 
listening to him after a while, and he said 
rather crossly, “ Hoot away, if you enjoy it, I 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


47 


am going to sleep.” Then he curled up closer 
to the friendly hazel bush and never waked up 
until the sun began to rise. He heard a wood- 
bird singing, “ Day-break, day-break, wake, 
wake, wake,” and he sprang up and ran home 
to his mother and brothers and sisters so fast 
that his long ears actually seemed to fly like a 
bird. 




48 



MOTHER-LOVE. 


/ Milly lived in Virginia on a 
great plantation. One morning 
her father said to her, “ I am 
going to ride to the river, daugh- 
ter; would you like to go?” 
“Yes, indeed, father,” she re- 
plied, and ran off as fast as she could to ask 
Sambo to saddle her little black pony. 

As they drew near the Potomac river, they 
saw smoke rising among trees that grew near 
its banks. Some one had made a camp fire 
and had been careless enough to go away and 
leave it still burning. Grass and vines and 
bushes were already on fire. As Milly and 
her father sat on their horses watching the 


40 


50 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


flames they saw a fish-hawk flying slowly 
above them and crying out as if she were in 
trouble. She flew in circles, over and over an 
old, dead, oak tree. The trunk of the tree was 
covered with last year s vines, and in among 
them, at the very top, she had her nest of 
young birds. She saw the fire drawing near 
and knew that her children were in great dan- 
ger. Round and round the nest she flew, 
crying out her sorrow. 

The flames came closer to the oak ; swiftly 
they ran up the vines that clung to it. The 
twigs and leaves on the outside of the nest 
caught the fire. The fish-hawk flew lower 
with a wild beating of her wings, and dropped 
to the nest ; she seized the blazing bits of 
straw and wood and pulled them out ; she 
fought against the fire until she saw that she 
could not save her little ones. What did she 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


51 


do then ? She rose slowly into the air, flew 
over the nest once — twice; then she sank 
down upon it, covered it with her wings, and 
was burned to death with them ; so strong 
and sweet and unselfish is Mother-Love. 

When the flames 
and smoke had 
wrapped the nest 
from their sight, 

Milly and her father 
turned their horses 
toward home. They 
were silent all the 
way and Milly s eyes 
were full of tears. 



HIAWATHA. 


Forth into the forest straightway, 

All alone walked Hiawatha 
Proudly, with his bow and arrows ; 

And the birds sang round him, o’er him, 

“ Do not shoot us, Hiawatha!” 

Sang the Opechee, the robin, 

Sang the bluebird, Owaissa, 

“ Do not shoot us, Hiawatha ! ” 

Up the oak-tree, close beside him, 

Sprang the squirrel, Adjidaumo, 

In and out among the branches. 

Coughed and chattered from the oak-tree, 
Laughed, and said between his laughing, 

“ Do not shoot me, Hiawatha ! ” 


52 



THE TRAINING OF BROWN BESS. 

Brown Bess was the joy of the family. She 
was always ready to draw the buggy wherever 
they wished to go, and she would pull it up 
steep hills or over sandy roads all day, and 
come trotting home at night as gayly as if she 
needed more exercise. Sometimes Miss May, 
who had her own ideas about how a horse 
ought to look, would take Bess out for a long 


53 



54 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


run, purposely, she said, to “ get some of the 
fat off.” But no matter how much she was 
driven, Bess stayed as plump and round as a 
dumpling. 

Whenever she was standing in the stall, and 
heard any of the family step out upon the 
porch, she would whinny to them to come out. 
None of them could refuse such a flattering 
request for their company, and the visitor was 
sure to carry an apple or a handful of clover, 
or some other choice mouthful. 

A learned professor, who was once a guest 
in the house, suggested that Brown Bess was 
not so fond of their company as she was of 
the offering they carried her when she called 
to them to come out; but of course he was 
wrong; he didn’t know the horse as well as 
they did. 

With all her good traits, Bess had one sad 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


55 


fault. If she was allowed to run in the 
pastures or the fields for a few hours, it was 
nearly impossible to catch her. 

Her master would sometimes say, “ Anyone 
going to use Bess to-day?” Better turn her 
out for a run, then. It seems too bad that a 
horse can’t have a roll and a run once in a 
while; they like a holiday and the freedom of 
it as well as we do.” 

The family always listened to this speech 
with dismay. “ How can we catch her if we 
happen to need her?” asked Miss May and 
Herbert in the same breath. 

Oh, it s easy enough to catch her,” said the 
master, and as he was usually sitting in his 
cool and pleasant office about the time the 
catching was going on, of course he really 
didn’t know how hard it was. 

Bess had a beautiful time in the fields. She 


56 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


rolled and ran and pranced and threw her head 
into the air, and ate the juicy grass, so that 
she was truly “ in clover ” all the morning. 

At lunch time Miss May remembered that 
she had an engagement with the embroidery 
club and she said “ Herbert, do you think 
we can possibly catch Bess. I want to drive 
her.” 

“ It’s a chance if we can,” her brother an- 
swered; “but we’ll try. I’ll jump on to the 
bay colt and drive her up this way. You 
stand at the carriage drive and keep her from 
going out there, and Rose better stand near 
the line of maple trees; she can run right 
through them anywhere and get into the next 
field.” 

So the girls took their stations, and Herbert, 
on the bay colt, started Bess toward the barn. 
She threw up her head and came in a swift. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


57 


\ easy run across the fields, stopping to snatch 
'a bite of grass once in a while, but always 
careful to keep a safe distance in front of the 
colt which carried Herbert and a halter strap. 
Wonder if Bess saw that halter strap? 

She went straight toward the carriage drive 
until she 5 aw Miss May guarding it, when she 
wheeled and started toward the row of maple 
trees. Both the girls ran to patrol this line 
and flew from spot to spot as she tried to get 
through. 

These girls are very agile,” thought Bess, 
and she threw up her heels and her head, 
made a quick turn, and before Herbert could 
wheel his horse, she had passed him and was 
flying back to the pasture like the wind, with 
the bay colt after her. 

Three times she was driven up and three 
times she escaped the chase. She thought it 


58 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


was a game, I dare say. She certainly enjoyed 
it more than the pursuers did. At the end of 
an hour Herbert hitched the colt to the post 
and sat down to get cool, for the perspiration 
was streaming from his face. Miss May took 
off her slippers to shake out the sand while 
Rose fell into the hammock, saying she was 
too tired to speak, but she began imme- 
diately to talk. “ Didn’t Bess look beautiful, 
though, when she was running with the colt 
after her? It is really almost a pity that 
horses have to be kept in stalls; they love so 
to be free.” 

“I felt so anxious to catch her that I 
couldn’t see how pretty she looked,” said Miss 
May. 

“ They are going to learn how to do lilies at 
the club to-day ; oh, dear, how I wish we could 
get her ! ” 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


59 


Herbert took his harmonicon from his 
pocket and began to play upon it. Bess 
turned her head and listened ; then she came 
nearer and nearer; she seemed to like the 
pretty music. 

Herbert stepped down from the veranda still 
playing, and walked slowly toward the horse. 
He reached her head and raised his hand to 
take hold of her mane when she gave a toss 
and was off again through the trees. 

„This won’t do,” said Herbert. “ It’s too 
troublesome to have her act like this every 
time she is out. A half dozen men could 
hardly catch her.” 

He put the bay colt into the stable and then 
came into the house, and took out of the 
library cases several books, which he had 
selected from their titles. All of them were 
about animals. He read them diligently until 


60 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


five o’clock. Then he went to the stable fol- 
lowed by Miss May and Rose, and took a few 
oats out of the box. He put them into a pan 
and went into the field and called, “ Bess, 
Bess, Bess,” and whistled to her. She lifted 
her head and looked, but would not come a 
step toward him. He put the feed down on 
the ground, went back to the barn, and he and 
his sisters watched from the window to see 
what the horse would do. 

When she saw that no one was near the 
pan she came walking up to it and ate all 
the feed. She then went back to the field 
and about seven o’clock came slowly into the 
barn, as gravely as if she had never thought 
of running when anybody, tried to catch 
her. 

Every day the following week, Herbert 
turned her out into the pasture at five o’clock 


ANIMAL WORLD 


61 


and an hour later he took out the pan of feed, 
whistled loudly to her, and went back to the 
barn. 

After that he would put down the pan and 
go only a rod or two away from it and she 
would come up and get it ; soon she would 
come and eat while he held the pan in his 
hands, and then he coaxed her to follow him 
some distance before he gave her what he had 
for her. 

By the end of a month his patience had 
won complete success. No matter where 
Brown Bess was, he had only to get some feed 
and whistle shrilly to her, and she would jump 
ditches or hedges and come galloping across 
the fields to the barn with the greatest 
promptness. 

The family were delighted with ‘ Herbert’s 
patience and good management. They said, 


62 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


“ Bess had only one fault and now she hasn’t 
any. We would not sell her for a pot of gold. 
.She seems like one of the family, and we 
think as much of her as the Arabs do of their 
horses.” 




THE BIG MOUNTAIN AND THE 
LITTLE SQUIRREL. 

The Mountain and the squirrel had a quarrel, 
And the former called the latter “ Little Prig.” 
Bun replied, ‘‘ You are doubtless very big. 

But all sorts of wind and weather 
Must be taken in together 
To make up a year and a sphere, 

And I think it no disgrace 
To occupy my place. 

If I’m not so large as you, you are not so 
small as I, 

And not half so spry; I’ll not deny you make 
A very pretty squirrel track; talents differ; 

All is well and wisely put ; 

If I cannot carry forests on my back. 

Neither can you crack a nut.” — Emerson. 


63 




THE FOX AND THE WOLF. 

The fox and the wolf went out hunting one 
day. They saw a large gray horse with a 
nice, fat bay colt beside her. 

“ Dear cousin,” said the wolf, “ I am almost 
starved ; do you think we can get that colt for 
our dinner?” 

“ I will ask the horse if she will sell it,” 
answered the fox. He went quite near to the 


61 



ANIMAL WORLD. 


65 


gray horse, and with a very polite bow, he 
said, “ Madam, will you sell your colt? ” 

The horse looked at him sharply for a 
minute before she replied. “Sell my colt? 
Certainly, certainly;” and she turned her head 
so that the fox did not see the twinkle in her 
eye. “ What price do you offer? ” 

“ Whatever you ask, madam, though an 
animal of your high intelligence must know 
that the market price of colts just now is very 
low.” 

“ My price is written on my hind foot,” 
said the horse. “ You can come up and read 
it.” 

The fox, you know, is very cunning, and he 
saw at once what she intended to do, so he 
answered, “ Oh, I am not the one who wishes 
to buy. I am sent by my cousin to ask if you 
will sell.” 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


GO 

“ Very well, tell your cousin to come up and 
read the price.’' 

Back ran the fox to the spot where he had 
left the wolf. 

“ Yes,” he said, 

“ she will sell her 
colt ; I think you 
can get it at a 
bargain ; you must give me some of the 
choicest bits to pay for my trouble ; but can 
you read. Cousin Wolf? ” 

“Of course I can read; I have studied 
Greek and Latin and many other branches. 
Why do you ask ? ” 

“ Because the price for the colt is written on 
the horse’s hind foot ; you must go up and 
read what it is.” 

The wolf put on his reading glasses and 
marched along, proud to know more than the 



ANIMAL WORLD. 


67 


fox. The horse held up her foot, which had 
been newly shod with strong iron shoes, and 
as the wolf was bending his head to look at it, 
she struck him so heavy a blow that he went 
head over heels and could not move for several 
minutes, while the horse with her colt ran 
swiftly home. 

The fox now came up and laughed loud and 
long. 

“ Oh, ho, cousin, have you eaten so much 
colt that you are doubled up with pain ? Was 
the price written in Greek or Latin ? Pray 
give me a share of the fattest parts.” 

“ Do not mock at me,” answered the wolf. 
“ I am sore all over.” The creature has a ter- 
rible iron hoof and I mistook the nails in it 
for letters ; while I was trying to read them, 
she hit me a terrible blow. Please help me to 
get up before any dogs come this way.” 


0 


68 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


“ I knew better than to go near her,” boasted 
the fox. “ I am glad I am not such a great 
scholar as you are ; scholars study too much, 
and get dull and come to grief as you have. 
But I must hurry home. I hope the dogs 
won’t come along while you lie there ; good- 
bye,” and off the selfish fox ran, still laughing. 

The wolf was so bruised that it was almost 
midnight before he had dragged himself to his 
lonely den. 




BUT A DOG FOR LOVE. 

Long, long, long ago, an old man, who took 
care of swine in the day-time, sat one evening 
at the door of his hut in the far-away island of 
Ithaca. 

While he sat there watching the sky a tall, 
strong man, with a long beard and untrimmed 
hair, dressed in very poor clothes, stood before 


69 


70 


ANIMAL WOKLt). 


him and said : “ Good man, will you give me 
food and lodging to-night?” 

The old swineherd rose from his seat, put 
out his hand in kindly greeting, and' answered, 
“Yes, friend; when the king, my master, ruled 
over this land no oiie was ever turned hungry 
from his door, and I will gladly give thee such 
poor food and lodging as I have.” 

“ I thank thee, truly,” answered the forlorn- 
looking stranger, “ but who was thy master 
and where is he now ? ” 

“ You must have heard in your travels over 
distant lands of great Ulysses,” said the 
swineherd. “ He was my noble master and 
the loved king of Ithaca. He went away to 
Troy and fought in the great war for ten 
years. When the war was at an end they 
say he sailed for home ; he never came again 
to his own land,” and the old swineherd wiped 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


71 


away a tear that fell when he talked of his 
king. 

“ Perhaps,” said the stranger, “ his boat was 
wrecked and he was cast away upon some lone 
island. He may yet come home. Do not 
despair of seeing him.” 

“ Ah,” said the old swineherd, “ it is twenty 
years now since he sailed away. I could wish 
he might come, that I might see his face again 
before I die, but I fear it will not be — but 
come in, come in, and I will lend thee a change 
of clothing and give thee water for thy bath 
before thou dost eat and sleep.” 

The: stranger woke the next morning, rested 
and refreshed. 

‘‘ I will go out with thee,” he said to the 
swineherd, and they went on toward the palace 
where Ulysses the king had lived. 

As they came near it, a pack of dogs, seeing 


72 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


a stranger with the swineherd, ran out, barking 
furiously and snapping so savagely at his 
heels and clothes that old Eumaus, for that was 
the swineherd s name, had to beat them off 
with his heavy stick. 

The stranger looked at the pack of dogs 
as they went back to the palace yards, and 
he said, “ I see one large dog lying there on 
the ground that did not run out with the 
others.” 

“ He is too feeble to run,” said Eumaus ; he 
was my king’s favorite and close friend; but 
now that poor Argus is old and feeble, no one 
except me ever speaks a friendly word to him 
or offers him food. Had my master lived it 
would not have been so; the faithful dog 
would have been tenderly cared for and never 
have known neglect.” 

By this time they had come quite near to 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


73 


the old dog, who lay stretched out in the sun 
as if he were asleep. 

“Argus?” said the stranger; “didst thou 
say his name is Argus? ” 

Before Eumaus could reply, the feeble old 
dog had struggled to his feet. He came 
straight up to the stranger, leaped upon him, 
licked his clothes and his feet, and trembled 
all over with excitement ; the stranger stooped 
to pat the dog and soothe him with gentle 
words, when all at once Argus fell over 
and in a moment or two had ceased to 
breathe. 

The stranger still stroked the dog and 
Eumaus said in great astonishment, “ What 
could have come upon the faithful old fellow 
to make him act like that? He must have 
lost his senses before he died. Poor old 
Argus ! ” but the stranger said never a word. 


74 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


Soon they walked on to the palace gates ; 
then Eumaus went to take care of the swine, 
but the stranger lingered around the court for 
many days. He saw what bad deeds were 
daily done there and how the poor were ill 
treated. 



When he had seen these things and found 
out all about the bad men who stayed in the 
palace, he took off his poor clothing one day, 
had his hair and beard trimmed, and dressed 
himself in splendid clothes ; and then all the 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


75 


people knew him, for he was their own king, 
Ulysses, whom they had thought dead. 

“ Only my old dog, faithful old Argus, knew 
me at once,” said the king. “ He died of joy 
when he heard my voice. A dog is man’s 
most faithful and devoted friend.” 



GENERAL GRANTS KINDNESS TO 
HORSES. 

An army was marching along the muddy 
roads in Virginia. The men wore blue coats 
and carried knapsacks. Most of them looked 
tired and cold. Behind the marching soldiers 
came a train of wagons that carried the food 
for the soldiers’ suppers. The horses that drew 


76 



ANIMAL WORLD. 


77 


the heavy wagons looked as tired as the men ; 
nearly all of the drivers were very kind to 
their horses ; they kept a sharp eye on the 
road to see which side of it was the best and 
made it as easy for the animals as they could. 

But one team had a cross driver. He 
scolded the horses, pulled hard on the lines and 
often used a whip. Presently he came to a 
swampy place in the road and his team could 
not pull the wagon through it. He became 
very angry and beat them brutally with the 
butt end of his great whip, abusing them all 
the time with bad words. He was so excited 
that he did not see General Grant come riding 
up on his fine black horse. He did not even 
know the General was there until he heard 
him call out, “ You scroundrel, stop beating 
those horses.” The whip fell from the team- 
ster s hand to the ground ; he was very 


78 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


much frightened and of course did not say a 
word. 

The General gave a signal to one of his 
officers, who rode forward and saluted. “ Send 
another man to drive this team,” said General 
Grant, “ and have this fellow tied up to a 
tree for six hours as a punishment for his 
brutality.” 

“ The bravest are the tenderest, 

The loving are the daring.” 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE 
OSTRICH FARM. 


It was just five minutes 
% before twelve o’clock and 
room six the pupils had 
stopped their work and 
were looking with bright 
eyes at Miss Douglass. 

I ^ “ Children,” she said, “ I 

have some good news for 
you.” They knew that when Miss Douglass 
said, “ Good news,” it usually meant “ Good 
times,” in some way or other, and they were 
anxious to hear more. 

“ The principal told me this morning that 
all our school had been invited by the mana- 



80 




ANIMAL WORLD. 


81 


gers of the ostrich farm at Pasadena to come 
and visit it, free of charge, Friday afternoon.” 

Fifty pair of hands clapped the good news 
vigorously, and Peter and John and curly- 
headed Mike, who always had front seats in 
the room, patted themselves softly on their 
chests and bobbed their heads up and down, 
again and again, to express in vigorous panto- 
mime that they were going whatever anybody 
else’s mother might say about anybody else’s 
not going. 

Pretty Miss Douglass smiled indulgently at 
the applause and when it had come to an end, 
heaped the measure of their childish happiness 
full by some more good news. 

“The street car company will carry you out 
there and bring you back, free of charge',' 
whereupon the clapping was louder than ever, 
and John and Peter and Mike slapped their 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


82 ' 

chests this time and nodded such vigorous 
acceptances that everybody understood how 
nothing short of an earthquake or a volcano 
would keep them at home. 

Miss Douglass and Miss Pullman talked 
the matter over as they walked home. “ I 
hope they’ll behave,” said Miss Pullman. 

“ Behave ? Why shouldn’t they ? Children 
behave fully as well in a crowd as adults do^ 
and they’re usually far more good-natured,” 
said Miss Douglass. 

One o’clock, Friday, came round very soon 
and found about two hundred children waiting 
on Spring Street for the Pasadena cars to 
come around the curve. 

“ Here she comes,” shouted the boys, and 
almost before the cars had stopped, the chil- 
dren, boys and girls alike-, were swarming up 
the steps and scrambling in at the doors in 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


83 


great glee. In a short time the conductors had 
the cars snugly packed with lively passengers. 

They did not scold or fret because they were 
crowded and so many of them had to stand 
up; they just held on to each other, laughed 
merrily, and had great fun about the people 
and things they could see through the 
windows. 

It seemed to them that they had hardly 
started before the conductors were calling out, 
“ South Pasadena, Ostrich Farm ! ” and bun- 
dling them out of the cars as if they were 
sacks of oats. 

A few moments more and they were all 
inside the gates and gazing with wide-open 
eyes at the tall, long-legged, long-necked, 
homely birds. 

As they passed along the walks outside the 
pens which enclosed the ostriches, the big 


84 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


birds walked along too, only they were inside. 
They seemed very curious to find out who the 
children were and what they were after. They 
opened their mouths so wide that everybody 
could look right into their throats, and their 
big eyes stared, and their long necks rose into 
the air, and they ran so fast that the children 
shouted with laughter and had great fun 
watching them. 

In one pen there were a dozen chicken 
ostriches only a few days old. They were eat- 
ing green alfalfa, which is a kind of clover, as 
if they could never get enough. They are 
taken away from the mother-bird as soon as 
they are hatched and fed on grass. 

In another pen there were two or three 
dozen full-grown birds and they were eating 
alfalfa, too. 

“They will swallow stones, whole oranges. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


85 


and even such a thing as a pipe if one is left 
where they can get it,” said the keeper. 

“ Do you want to see them eat beets ? ” and he 
took some large pieces of beet and held them 
out to one of the birds. The ostrich seized 
them greedily and the children saw the pieces 
go down the long throat, making a lump all 
the way. 

A great heap of stones and gravel was in 
one corner of the pen. “They swallow them 
to grind up the food they eat,” said the keeper. 

In each of several pens there were only two 
birds, a male and his mate. On these pens 
were painted the names of some famous man 
and woman, as a president, or a general or a 
prince, for whom the birds had been named. 
That is one of the prices people have to pay 
for being great — having all sorts of animals 
and of people named for them. 


86 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


On most of the pens which contained only 
two birds was painted in large letters, “ Dan- 
gerous ! Keep away from the fence ! ” 

All the full-grown birds had long drooping 
feathers in wings and tail, some of which were 
yellowish white, some drab and others black. 

“ When the time comes to pick the feathers,” 
said the keeper, “ we put a bag over each 
bird’s head so that it can’t see, and then 
trained workmen carefully pull out all the 
feathers that are ripe. The workmen take 
good care not to get where the ostriches can 
kick them. They can break a man’s leg with 
one blow.” 

There were two or three cases filled with 
the blown shells of eggs. An ostrich egg 
weighs about three pounds and is equal to 
thirty hen’s eggs. If you were to eat an 
omelet made of ostrich egg you could not tell 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


87 


that it was at all different from the sort of egg 
you usually eat. 

But the best thing of all happened to Mike, 
for one of the men picked him up and set him 
on the back of a very tall bird, and he rode all 
around the farm, showing his white teeth as 
he laughed in delight. 

The hour for which they had been invited 
passed away quite too soon for the children 
and they found themselves outside the gates 
waiting for the electric car to come along. 



WHAT HAPPENED AT THE 
OSTRICH FARM. 

Part H. 

Now John and Peter and Mike and two or 
three others, girls as well as boys, could no 
more stand still and wait, than birds or kittens 



ANIMAL WORLD. 


89 


could. And that is why six or seven of the 
children pulled themselves up to the top of the 
high fence which enclosed the ostrich park, and 
perched themselves in a dangerous fashion, 
where they could look down upon the yards 
containing the birds. 

“Hi, look yonder!’’ called out John. “See 
that big hole in the ground with big eggs in 
it ! And there’s yet another ; they’re nests ; he 
never showed ’em to us.” 

“ Where is it? ” and “ where, where, where?” 
called out the other excited perchers, who were 
not quite as near to it as John was. 

“ Wait, I’ll throw a rock close to it and then 
you’ll all see where it is,” said John, and he 
drew a small stone from a pocket full and 
threw it with such good aim that it stopped 
very near to the nest so that all the perchers 
saw the big eggs in the big hole in the ground. 


90 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


‘‘ I can throw closer to it than that, give me 
a rock;” said Peter, and when John handed 
him a stone he threw it with an air of confi- 
dent victory toward the nest. Alas ! his aim 
was a little too near and his stone went into 
the very midst of the white eggs. 

Meantime, Mike’s sister Rose had discovered 
still another nest, and in trying to show it to 
the children, she had thrown an apple from her 
lunch basket plump into it. 

The noise of the two crashes brought one of 
the keepers hastily to the spot. He saw the 
broken eggs and then he looked on every side 
to see what could have done the mischief. 

In a moment he caught sight of the children 
on the fence. “ You little wretches ! ” he called 
out in an angry tone, and seizing a heavy stick 
he ran toward them. But they slid down from 
their perch so quickly that before he could get 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


91 


over the fence and down to where the children 
were standing, the car had come whizzing 
along and they ,were off, beyond the reach of 
his stick or his angry words. 

Peter and John and Mike and Rose and the 
others who had been up on the fence and knew 
about the mischief that was done, were very 
silent as they sped home. They had not 
intended to do a mean act, and they were sorry 
enough now, and not a little afraid. They had 
done more damage than they knew. 

In the nest which Peters rock hit, eleven 
eggs, worth six dollars apiece, had been 
broken ; Rose’s apple had destroyed four eggs 
just ready to hatch, and the chickens would 
have been worth thirty dollars each as soon as 
they came out of the shell. 

Mike and Rose had a good mother; the 
consequence of which was that they came to 


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ANIMAL WORLD. 


school early the next morning a,nd told Miss 
Douglass the whole truth about the broken eggs. 

In the afternoon the principal came in to 
read a letter which he had received from the 
managers of the ostrich farm. He told of the 
damage that had been done and ended by say- 
ing: “It was our intention to invite all the 
school children in the city to visit the park as 
our guests, but after what happened yesterday, 
we do not consider it safe to invite any more 
of them.” 

Miss Douglass saw by the sober faces of the 
children that they felt badly enough already, 
and she said only this : “ We can never tell how 
many people may have to suffer because we 
do a thoughtless deed,” and then she turned 
and wrote upon the blackboard, 

“ Evil is often wrought. 

By want of thought.” 



A DAY WITH A PUMA. 

A puma started out early one morning to 
do something, she hardly knew what; to go 
somewhere, she hardly knew where. Perhaps 
she would walk across the plain that lay be- 
yond her woodland home ; perhaps she would 
go to the woods beyond the plains. She must 
have felt as the monkeys do who never have 
any plans, but do whatever comes handy. 

93 



94 


ANIMAL WOULD. 


She was not hungry, for she 'had eaten for 
her supper the night before two partridges 
and a nest full of their eggs, a wild duck, 
three rabbits and some field mice. 

She did not seem to be in any hurry to get 
anywhere, for she stopped to play every few 
minutes. A small, round rock lay in her path, 
and she rolled it away from its place and then 
ran after it, and jumped at it, and rolled it off 
again, and then seized it with her paws, just 
as a kitten would play with a pretty ball. 

A cactus bush cast its shadow upon the 
sand and the shadow moved a little as the 
wind swayed the bush ; she hid behind the 
cactus for a moment, and then playfully 
jumped at the shadow as if it were something 
to catch ; then she hid again, and again 
jumped at the shadow. She was in high 
spirits. If a man had come along while she 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


95 


was SO full of play she would, very likely, 
have been glad to see him, and would have 
frolicked around him and been as pleased and 
lively as a dog. Pumas have been known to 
act in that way toward men. 

By and by, when she was tired of playing 
all alone, she lay down in a thicket near the 
edge of the plain, and stayed there until the 
sun went down and the stars came out in 
the sky. 

“ It is getting late,” she said, “ I believe I 
could eat another supper,” and she came out 
of the thicket, stretched herself to limber her 
muscles, yawned, and set out. 

“ I think that there is a stream of water 
near here where the deer come to drink,” she 
thinks ; “ how I should like some venison,” 
and she ran on toward the woods which were 
beyond the plain, until presently she got the 


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ANIMAL WORLD. 


scent of a deer. Instantly she leaped to one 
side, and crouching low, pushed in among the 
trees. She stole along with noiseless step till 
her keen eyes saw a deer at the very edge of 
the water. 

“ If I can reach that little mound, I can 
spring on the deer with greater force,” she 
thinks, and she creeps toward it so silently 
that even the ears of an Indian scarcely might 
have known she was lurking near. 

But the deer has taken alarm ; perhaps he 
has scented the puma ; perhaps he has heard 
a twig rustle as she moved ; he has lifted his 
head — he gives one great bound and is down 
the forest path like the wind. But the puma is 
like the cyclone — she makes a great leap and 
is on the poor animal’s back with her fore 
feet ; he bounds and struggles fiercely ; can 
she hold on ? No, no ; she has landed too far 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


97 


back ; she slips and falls to the ground, while 
the deer, with his skin showing a great wound, 
is off like an arrow through the wood and 
over the plain. 

The puma knows well that she cannot catch 
him. Perhaps she says to herself, “ Oh, well, 
he didn’t look so very fat anyway,” and she 
lies down for a moment to consider some 
other way of getting a supper. 

There may be some rabbits out getting a 
late meal or playing games in the moonlight ; 
she turns again toward the cactus bushes that 
grow on the plain. 

Soon she stops short, and listens; she hears 
nothing, but surely she cannot mistake that 
scent ; there must be rabbits somewhere. 

She steals on through the low trees, until 
suddenly she sees, right before her eyes, a 
most amazing sight. 


98 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


One of the hunters from the camp not far 
away has been shooting rabbits for to-mor- 
rows breakfast. He has tied them together 
and has hung them to the branch of a tree, 
while he goes down to the stream for some 
water. 

“This is great good luck,’’ says the puma, 
and she jumps for the rabbits, brings them 
down, and trots off leisurely with them. 

She has gone only a few yards when a 
shadow falls upon her path. The hunter has 
come after his game. 

“ You thieving old puma,” he says. He 
raises his gun to his shoulder, fires, and the 
puma’s day is ended. 

The hunter took off her pretty skin and 
carried it to the camp ; when it was cured, he 
sent it to his little daughter, who lives far 
away from cactus plains and wild animals. 


O^oJ 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


99 


She sits on it at evening in front of the 
blazing fire in the grate, and wonders what it 
did when it was alive. 



Lof c. 



FOUR LITTLE WOODCHUCKS. 

The home of these little woodchucks was 
three feet under the ground and they had 
never yet been outside of it. They were sit- 
ting up as straight as woodchucks could sit, 
and listening to their mother, who was giving 
them their first lesson in woodchuck-ol-o-gy. 

“ Do you want to hear how your parents 
built this nice home for you ? ” she asked. 


100 



ANrMAL WORLD. 


101 


“ If you please/’ they whistled in reply. 
Woodchucks always talk in a low whistle. 

“ First, with his strong, sharp claws, your 
father dug out a hall-way twenty-five feet 
long.” 

“Where did he put the dirt?” asked the 
smallest cub. 

“ Oh, he pushed it out with his back and his 
strong hind legs, as fast as he dug it up ; 
when he had finished the hall-way, he made 
this nice living-room.” 

“ There is another hall-way, too,” said the 
fattest cub, “ I put my head into it yesterday ; 
but I did not go in for fear I might get stuck 
fast, it looked so small.” 

“ Oh, no,” said the mother'; “ it is quite large 
enough for you to get through ; that is a hall- 
way to the back door of our house. It opens 
right under the side of a large stone that lies 


102 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


in the meadow. If a snake or a weasel were 
to come in at the front door, we could escape 
by the back door.” 

“ Did you help build the house ? ” asked the 
sleepiest looking cub. 

“ I furnished it when it was done ; I brought 
in soft rolls of grass to sit on and to lie on, 
and here you were born, and here you have 
stayed until now; I am going to take you out 
for your first walk this morning.” 

At this all the little ’chucks began to whistle 
at once, and they got so excited that the 
mother had to whistle very loud before they 
knew she was speaking. 

“ Better shut your eyes while we go through 
the hall-way, lest dirt may fall into them,’ she 
said ; “ now all of you follow me.” 

The cubs fairly tumbled over each other in 
their hurry to follow, and it was only a minute 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


103 


before their mother said, “ Here we are!” and 
they opened their brown eyes upon the beauti- 
ful world. 

It was late in May and a soft carpet of 
green lay upon the meadow. Mother Wood- 
chuck stepped into the pretty grass, and the 
little ones clung to her soft fur, rolling and 
tumbling, and listening to the many sounds 
that were all new to them. 

“Here is a nice breakfast forms,” said the 
mother ; and she stopped beside a plantain, 
which woodchucks like almost as well as you 
like roast turkey. “ You may try your new 
little teeth on it;” and they began to nibble the 
juicy leaves just as they saw their mother do. 

Presently she stopped eating, sat up on her 
haunches, turned her ears to this side and to 
that side and held up her tail to the cubs for 
silence. “Hark!” she said; “we must stop 


104 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


eating ; ” I hear a woodchuck’s low whistle 
somewhere in the meadow ; he is giving all 
the other woodchucks a signal that there is a 
dog ora boy around ; we must run home as 
fast as we can.” And away they all trotted, in 
great fright, never stopping to look at any of 
the pretty things by the way ; so that very 
soon they were safe in their snug home. But 
the next day, and every day after that, they 
went out and rolled and tumbled and frolicked 
and ate, just as happy as children are. They 
learned how to burrow, how to climb, and how 
to tell what the different sounds in the air 
mean. They never went far from home, and 
they had such very keen ears that they could 
hear a dog or a boy long before either of them 
came into sight; and so they were always 
snugly hidden in their burrow before any 
danger came near. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


105 


“ May we go to visit our cousins over by 
the stone wall ? ” asked the fattest of the wood- 
chucks one morning in July. 

“Yes,” said the mother; “but listen very 
carefully to the sounds in the air, and hurry 
into the burrow if you hear any boy or 'dog 
noises.” • 

“ Oh, yes, of course we will,” and they wab- 
bled away, playing merrily as they went. 

Their cousins told them of a garden near 
by where there were lettuce, beets, cabbages, 
and — only think of it — green peas. 

“ Let us go to it,” said the fattest wood- 
chuck ; “ mother says that green peas are the 
best greens that grow.” Then both families of 
cousins, nine in all, trotted to the garden and 
ate so much that their stomachs fairly ached. 

The gardener was away at the market, but 
the next morning he saw what they had done. 


106 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


He was very cross and set a trap to catch 
them ; but Mrs. Twinkle-Eye Woodchuck saw 
him do it, and sent the news all over the 
meadow so that none of the chucks dared go 
there again. They were very indignant. “Why 





is he so stingy?” they said; “we like to have 
everybody eat anything they like in our 
meadow, and we would never set a trap for 
anybody, either.” 

Before very many weeks had gone, the four 



ANIMAL WORLD. 


107 


little woodchucks were large enough to choose 
mates and make homes for themselves. The 
smallest one made a burrow with two hall- 
ways just like his father’s. Two of them 
took possession of some burrows they found 
already made, and the fat one made his home 
in the deep hollow of an old tree near the 
stone wall. When they had moved into their 
new homes and were fairly settled, they spent 
most of the time eating sweet, juicy, green 
clover, which had Sprung up after the 
meadows had been mowed. Sunny days and 
moonlight nights they were out, eating, and 
eating, and eating, until their cheeks got so fat 
and their sides so wide they could hardly waddle. 

“ Now we must go to sleep for the winter,” 
they said. 

“Tut, tut,” spoke up an old crow who over- 
heard them, “ why in the world are you going 


108 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


to sleep now ? There is abundance in the 
meadows for you to eat and it will be nice 
warm weather for two months yet. You ought 
not to go to sleep as early as this.” 

But the woodchucks made answer : “ Oh, we 
can’t change our plans under any circum- 
stances ; the fathers and the grandfathers and 
the grandfathers’ fathers all went to sleep at 
this time of the year, and the very first wood- 
chuck that ever lived did the same, so it must 
be proper. “ Maybe,” suggested the old crow, 
“ maybe when the first woodchuck began it 
the seasons were different, and winter came 
sooner than it does now.” 

But the woodchucks didn’t even stay to hear 
his last words. They said, “ Good-night ” and 
ran away to their homes as fast as they could 
for fear they might be an hour too late in 
beginning their winter nap. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


109 


They rolled themselves into soft, warm balls 
of fat and fur, and by the first day of October 
were so sound asleep that a dozen dogs bark- 
ing right at their back doors wouldn’t have 
wakened them. If you could have crawled 
into a burrow and pulled a sleeping ’chuck 
out, you might have thought him dead, he 
would have been so cold and still. 

Once some people took a woodchuck, which 
was in his winter sleep, into a very warm room 
and pinched him and rubbed him until he really 
waked up ; but the moment they let him alone, 
he dropped into the same deep sleep again. 

I think it must be rather pleasant to take a 
long, warm, sweet nap in the cold winter when 
everybody else is shivering and shaking ; and 
not to have to buy coal or make fires, or cook, 
or do anything disagreeable. I am not sure I 
shouldn’t like it myself. 


110 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


When March came along — cold bleak, 
blustering March — out peeped the wood- 
chucks from their front doors. But oh, how 
thin and poor they were ; not at all the same 
sleek fat balls they looked when they bade the 
crow good-night ! They tumbled weakly out 
of their burrows and began to look for green 
grass and plantain, but green things were not 
ready to grow yet and the woodchucks had a 
hard time living; indeed, I have heard that 
one of them — the smallest — actually starved 
to death. 

If some wise person could only have taught 
them not to come out the first of March, but 
to wait until April Fools day, at least, how 
much better it would have been for them! 
But if anyone had tried to teach them they 
would probably have answered : “ Oh, we have 
to come out the first of March, because the 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


Ill 


fathers and the grandfathers and their fathers 
and their grandfathers, and the very first 
woodchuck that ever lived, did so.” 




HIAWATHA. 


When he heard the owls at midnight, 
Hooting, laughing, in the forest, 

“ What is that?” he cried in terror, 

“ What is that? ” he said, “ Nokomis ? ” 
And the good Nokomis answered : 

“ That is but the owl and owlet. 

Talking in their native language. 

Talking, scolding, at each other.” 

Then the little Hiawatha 
Learned of every bird its language, 
Learned their names and all their secrets. 
How they built their nests in summer. 
Where they hid themselves in winter. 
Talked with them whene’er he met them. 
Called them, “ Hiawatha’s chickens.” 


112 


ELEPHANT STORIES. 



Don’t you like to 
see the elephants at 
an animal show or at 
the circus when they 
come marching in so 
grave and dignified ? 
Don’t you like to see 
them walk around the 
ring and perform their 
skillful feats without 
even the twinkle of an 
eye to let us think 
they enjoy it as much 
as we do ? 

One winter an ani- 


113 



114 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


mal trainer had a large number of elephants 
at Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was teaching 
them to do all sorts of different things, so that 
when the circus went out on its annual sum- 
mer tour people would say: “Well, that is 
wonderful ! I never before saw such smart 
things done by elephants. We must tell every- 
body we see to come to the circus^ 

The elephants, no doubt, thought it was 
rather hard, in the cold stormy days of winter, 
to march like soldiers, and to lie down when a 
gun was fired, and to dance a quadrille, and do 
all sorts of things that were undignified — for 
elephants ; but they obeyed their trainers, 
though they grumbled and scolded somewhat 
while they did so. 

After they had given the elephants their daily 
lesson, the trainers went away and left them, but 
they could see the yards where they were kept. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


115 


What do you suppose they saw ? 

When the elephants had eaten their dinner 
and taken a nap, they got up and began to 
practise the lesson which the trainers had 
given them. 



Those great animals went through with 
their exercises, gravely and carefully, without 
any human being in sight to direct them or 
give them orders. 


116 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


No wonder they could do their parts so 
skillfully and make everybody anxious to go 
to the circus when it went out the next 
summer. 

* * * 

Wild elephants are not at all like the 
trained animals you see in the parks and in 
animal shows. They look like them, but 
they are as fierce and dangerous as the tiger 
or the lion ; not docile and kind like the 
captives. 

Many travelers have killed hundreds of 
elephants just for the sport of killing. Others, 
like Doctor Livingstone, would never kill 
either elephants or any other animals, unless 
they were in danger from their attacks, or in 
need of them for food. 

Once an Englishman was out hunting with 
some Arabs. They did not find much game 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


117 


for several days, and their canned food was 
nearly all eaten. 

Two of the Arabs left the camp at mid- 
night, and stole silently to a pool of water 
where they had seen elephant tracks. They hid 
themselves behind a great ant hill and waited. 

Before long an elephant came out of the 
jungle and went down into the water. One 
of the Arabs shot, and hit it just behind the 
ear. It staggered forward a few steps, till a 
shot from the other Arab’s gun killed it. 

In the morning all the Arabs came to the 
pool to see the elephant and get some of it 
for food. 

They dug a deep hole nearly a yard long in 
the ground. This they filled with wood, which 
they set on fire and kept burning until the 
sides of the hole were very hot. Then they 
cut off one of the elephant’s feet and put it 


118 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


on the red coals. Next they brought green 
wood and grass, and packed them closely over 
the foot, and last they plastered the whole 
with mud and stamped on it to make it tight. 

They left the elephant s foot in this queer 
oven for twenty-four hours. When they took 
it out, it was so well cooked that the sole fell 
off, leaving about fifty pounds of juicy, tender 
meat, which made a fine feast for them all. 




KOTIK. 

Do you know about Kotik? He is quite 
the fashion just now, for two great nations 
have been making a great deal of talk, and 
almost a quarrel about him, for a long time; 
and two famous men have been writing stories 
about him ; the stories are so very much alike 
that they certainly must be true. 

Kotik’s birth-place is away up toward t' c 


119 


120 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


cold lands of the north, but he is a great 
traveler, and he stays at home only when 
it is summer-time there. Before the winter 
comes he is off and away to a warmer 
clime. 

One day, when he was only a few weeks old, 
he was lying on his back in the soft, warm 
sand of his island home. Suddenly his 
mother ran to him, took hold of him with her 
month, and dragged him as fast as she could 
under a shelf of rock not far away. “ Little 
Kotik,” she said, “ if you look out of this open- 
ing between these rocks you can see a fine 
fight. This part of the beach belongs to your 
father and his family; there are now forty of 
us besides the children. An hour ago your 
uncle came over the rocks and wanted to stay 
here, and your father is fighting with him to 
make him go away.” 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


121 


“See, see; there he goes: he has a bad 
wound in his head and his shoulder is hurt, 
too. He came just like this last year and 
your father drove him away. You may well 
be proud, little Kotik, because your father is 
the biggest and strongest seal around here 
and is always master of this part of the beach. 
Whenever you see that he is going to fight 
any stranger who comes, you must run as fast 
as you can and hide, else you may be knocked 
over and killed. Now run off and play with 
the other children ; the fight is all over.” 

Little Kotik lay down again in the soft, 
warm sand, but he told his brothers and 
sisters that when he grew as big and strong 
as his father, he would not drive visitors 
away, but let them stay on his beach if they 
liked ; however, seals soon forget what they 
say, and I fear Kotik forgot. 


122 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


Every day these seal children would climb 
up on the rocks, and when they were half way 
to the top, tumble down on the sand, and roll 
over each other, and then climb up again and 
tumble down ; they played in this way for 
hours. One of his brothers pushed Kotik 
right into the water one day; he spluttered and 
sneezed and flopped around in a very awkward 
way, but his mother insisted that he must 
learn to swim ; so he went into the water very 
often and before the summer was over he 
could swim miles without being tired. 

One day a cold wind came blowing out of 
the north. Birds began to fly away from the 
beach. A whale from the ice country told one 
of the beach masters that Jack Frost had 
planned to make an early start this year, 
and soon the seals made ready to begin their 
travel to the south. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


123 


Kotik, you will travel with me,” said his 
mother; “your father always goes with the 
men, for they are good enough friends after 
they leave the beaches.” And soon they set off 
in the beautiful blue waters of the ocean. It 
did not cost them anything to travel, so they 
went wherever they chose. Kotik s mother 
knew where the prettiest places in the sea 
were, and the mother seals would rest in the 
beautiful ocean gardens, while the children 
leaped and splashed and swam and played in 
the friendly waters. When they were hungry, 
they* would swim to some spot where 
the most delicious fish could be found, and 
eat all they wished ; then they would take a 
nap, lying on the top of the sparkling waves. 
The waves rocked them so softly and sang 
them such gentle lullabies that they dreamed 
the most beautiful dreams. And so they went 


124 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


on towards the south, day after day, having 
nothing to think about but enjoying them- 
selves. One morning Kotik said, “Why 
mother, I am as large as you are, and my 
hands and feet are larger.” “ Yes,” said his 
mother, “ you have grown fast since we left 
our island, and I think it is time that you and 
I and the other seals started for our beach.” 
“ Your father will be there waiting for us.” 

That night the seals turned their faces 
toward the north. Without a compass they 
swam on and on, until one night Kotik’s 
mother said to him, “ To-morrow we shall see 
our own beach and I shall have to say good- 
bye.” “ Say good-bye ? ” said Kotik, “ why ? 
Am I not going to our beach with you ? ” “ No, 
my child, there is another beach set aside 
especially for you boys; there will be hun- 
dreds of you there together, and you will not 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


125 


be lonely. Whenever you swim past the beach 
where I am, call out to me ; I shall always 
know your voice and when I hear you call I 
shall know you are well.” Then she pointed 
out to him where he was to go and left 
him. 

Kotik had a very good time with the other 
seals when he got over being lonely. They 
went off on fishing and swimming excursions, 
they played games together, and never fought 
or hurt each other. 

One morning his brother, Kotok, woke him 
up long before sunrise, while it was still dark ; 
“ Hurry, hurry, Kotik,” he said, “ the men are 
coming to drive us up on the sand and kill us. 
I saw them do it last year. We must jump 
into the sea and swim away.” Then Kotok 
swam off as fast as he could, but Kotik only 
laughed ; because, like some people, he 


126 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


would not believe anything he had not him- 
self seen. 

It was only a few minutes before all the 
seals were awake, but only too late to get 



away now, for men stood between them and 
the water and drove them up over the sandy 
beach. They rolled over each other, and 
stepped on each other s tails and toes, and had 
great fun as they tumbled along. They did 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


127 


not know what fate was before some of them. 
After they had gone about a half mile, the 
men singled out all the seals that were three 
years old and had no scars, and drove them 
a short distance from the others. They then 
hit each one of them a quick blow on the head 
with a club, and there the pretty fellows lay, 
quite dead. In ten minutes more their shin- 
ing skins were off and taken to the curing 
house, to be made into seal skin furs for beau- 
tiful ladies to wear. The seals that were not 
killed now turned round and went back again 
to their beach. They played and swam and 
ate as cheerfully as before they had seen their 
brothers killed ; for they said, “ We may as 
well have a good time. Men have always 
killed us when they wanted to and probably 
they always will; so why should we worry 
When the summer was over, Kotik’s mother 


128 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


waited for him, and again they traveled away 
through the cool waters of the sea, and came 
back when it was time. 

But the men who drive the seals did not 
get Kotik. He had grown wise, and when- 
ever he heard them coming through the mists 
of the dark, cold morning, he would plunge into 
the sea and stay there until they were gone. 

And so he lived for four or five years ; then 
his father died and Kotik went to the beach 
where he was born and became master there. 
By that time, alas, he had forgotten all about 
his early promise, and he fought every seal 
that came to his beach just as his rough, old 
father had done before him. Animals, as well 
as people, are very likely to do just as their 
parents did unless they have been very highly 
educated, and you see the seals do not have 
schools, as the mackerel do. 



HOW PUNTO COOKED. 

Captain Lee always brought gifts to his 
wife whenever he came home from a voyage. 
She had beautiful shawls and shimmering 
silks and carved fans, and tea sets so delicate 
that they were almost too fine to use, and 
many other nice things. In fact, Captain Lee 
had brought her so many different presents, 
that he didn’t really know what else to choose. 


129 



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ANIMAL WORLD. 


His ship was in a port of Calcutta, and he was 
about to sail for home, when he saw a monkey 
in a shop near the wharf. The monkey had 
been taught all kinds of tricks, and yet he was 
well-behaved, — for a monkey. His antics 
pleased Captain Lee so much that he bought 
him and took him home. 

Mrs. Lee was rather afraid of him at first, 
but he made her so polite a bow when he was 
introduced, and was so cunning and amusing 
that she grew fond of him and permitted him 
to follow her about all over the house and 
yard. 

He was in the store-room with her one day, 
watching with his keen eyes while she made 
a cake. He saw her sift the flour, beat the 
eggs, put in the sugar and spice, taste the 
dough, and then pour it into the pan. The 
dinner bell rang and Mrs. Lee said, “ Come, 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


131 


Punto ; you will be into all sorts of mischief 
if I were to leave you here,” and she made 
him come out; then she locked the door to 
make sure that he did not get in. 

By-and-by she went to the store-room again, 
turned the key in the lock, pushed open the : 
door, and to her complete surprise if there 
wasn’t Punto! Mrs. Lee had forgotten the 
broken pane in the store-room window, but 
Punto had not, and there he sat making a 
cake himself. He had taken off the cover of 
the flour barrel and broken twenty eggs into 
the flour; he had then poured in all the sugar 
in the jar, and now he was stirring the dough 
briskly with his paw. 

“Oh, Punto, Punto ! what shall I do with 
such a naughty creature I ” 

Perhaps she scolded him. Of course it would 
do no good to scold a monkey for he would 


132 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


mix another cake the very next day if he got 
a chance ; but people who scold never stop to 
think whether it will do any good or not, but 
just scold away. 



PARRY. 


f The parrot was all green the 
day she came from the store, but 
there were as many shades of 
green in her plumage as you 
may see some early morning if 
you look at the grass, and all the 
different trees and plants in the 
park. 

She could not speak a word, 
but her bright eyes looked out at you with 
keen gaze. 

“There’s one thing we won’t do,” said twelve- 
year-old Gertrude, “ we won’t call her Polly, 
Its too common ; every parrot that I have ever 
seen is named Polly. Let’s call her Parry!' 


133 


134 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


“ All right,” said her brother Paul, and so 
Parry was her name from the very first day. 

Gertrude and Paul went to the cage many 
times daily and said to her, very slowly and 
distinctly, “ Parry ” ; but several weeks passed 
by, and the parrot had made no effort to speak. 
She was taking plenty of time to get ready. 

One morning the family were at the break- 
fast table; a sound came from the cage in the 
window. Everybody looked up. “ Par-ry, 
Par-ry, Par-ry,” said the bird ; slowly and 
hesitatingly at first, then with more and more 
ease and clearness. 

Gertrude and Paul were in ecstasies, but 
they did not run to her cage and excite her ; 
they kept quiet, only saying occasionally, to 
show her how easy it was, “ Par-ry, Par-ry.” 

She was very quick to learn after she had 
made a beginning. The children gave her a 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


135 


lesson daily. They would stand by her cage 
and say, over and over again, the words they 
wished her to learn, and after a while she 
would attempt them. Sometimes in her zeal 
to talk, she grew so noisy that Paul had to 
take her cage down and put it into a dark 
closet. She soon understood that she was to 
be shut up if she grew too noisy, but she took 
her punishment good-naturedly; her parting 
words were always, “ Shut the door; good-bye !” 
in a most spirited and cheerful tone. 

She liked to sit on the shoulder of Mr. 
Barry, the children’s father, while he played 
on the piano, and sometimes she would walk 
all over his back. 

One night she was out of the cage walking 
proudly about the parlors, when Gem, the little 
fox terrier, unfortunately followed Paul into 
the house. There was a rush of dog, a squawk 


136 


ANIMAL WORLD. 



of parrot, and all the family hurried to the 
rescue. Gem had seized her by her feathers 
near the neck. Paul choked the dear little 
dog, while his mother laid hold of the panting 


bird, and all the others screamed. Parry’s 
neck had a spot of blood on it and a few of 
her feathers lay on the floor, but she did not 
seem to be seriously hurt ; however, the next 
day she did not once move from her perch to 




ANIMAL WORLD. 


137 


get food or drink, and it was two or three days 
before she ate regularly ; it was much longer 
than that before she would speak a word. 
She treated her rescuers. Paul and his mother, 
as if they had caused her misfortune. She 
screamed at them if they came near the cage 
and would not permit them to touch her. 

Paul and Gertrude went to ask the man in 
the bird store what they could give her for 
this “ nervous prostration.” 

“ Keep her quiet,” he said, “ and don’t try to 
get her to talk at present. You are very lucky 
that she didn’t die; parrots often die from 
fright.” 

After several weeks had passed, she became 
as bright and cheerful as before, and even 
grew friendly to the terrier, so that whenever 
he came in sight she would call him to her, 
“ Gem, Gem, here. Gem, come here! ” 


138 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


Perhaps the best trait that Parry possessed 
was her cheerfulness. If the sleet and snow 
fell fast, or gray smoke-clouds hid every ray 
of the friendly sun ; if the blazing heat poured 
down and settled like a red flame, withering 
even Paul and Gertrude’s blithe young spirits ; 
if some bad news had taken the smiles from 
every other member of the family, — there was 
Parry, always bright, cheerful and gay. Her 
“ Holloa, how dy do?” had almost a caress in 
it as she tipped her head to one side, and 
gave each of her friends such hearty greeting 
when she caught sight of them. 

She had a very large cage, in which she 
could swing back and forth, jump from side 
to side, and almost try her wings in flying. 
But one unlucky day a visitor said, “Your 
cage is much too large for the parrot. She 
can fly around it too freely and it breaks her 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


139 


tail and wing feathers, and spoils her beauty. 
We keep our parrot in a smaller cage and her 
feathers are much more perfect.” 

And so, for her beauty’s sake. Parry was 
put into a small cage. The cold winter had 
just come when the change was made. Prob- 
ably because she could not be as active as she 
had been before, she took cold and was very 
ill. Her friends thought she had pneumonia, 
and though they gave her remedies and did all 
they could for her, she did not get any better. 

One morning the children’s father took her 
out of the cage and held her in his hands. 
She put her head down against his face for 
a second, and then it fell over ; she was dead. 
The family felt very sad and they said they 
could never think as much of another bird as 
they had thought of Parry. 



OLD SWAYBACK. 

Father and Mother Coil and Paul and 
Albert and their baby sister Rose, lived on a 
new farm in Kansas. The father ploughed 
the prairie soil, planted the corn, and worked 
so hard all day that when night came he was 
too tired to do anything but fall asleep as 
soon as his head touched the pillows. But 
mother did not go to sleep so soon. She was 


140 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


141 


up in the morning as early as father ; she 
cooked the meals, washed the dishes, swept 
and scrubbed and ironed, took care of baby, 
and made all the trousers which Paul and 
Albert wore out so fast. Still she often lay 
awake at night. Sometimes she heard the 
wolves howl. Sometimes she thought she 
heard a whoop that sounded like Indians. 
When she told father this at breakfast time, 
he always said, “Oh, mother, you were dream- 
ing; there hasn’t been an Indian seen around 
here for six months.” 

But there were nights when mother lay 
awake and wondered what would happen to 
the children if Indians should ever really 
come. 

Paul and Albert often talked about it, too, 
when they were pulling the weeds out of the 
onions or knocking off potato bugs. 


142 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


“We could all lock ourselves up in the 
house when we saw them coming,” said Paul, 
“and mother could shoot one gun and father 
the other and you and I could throw hot coals 
down on them.” 

“ Yes,” said Albert, “ but s’pose they come 
when father is out in the hay field and we’re 
taking his dinner to him ; what would happen 
then ? ” 

“ I s’pose we’d all have to get scalped ; ” said 
Paul gloomily ; but when mother called them in 
to eat a nice dinner of bread and syrup and hot 
ginger cake, they forgot all about Indians and 
took Rose out in her little wagon to the garden, 
where they worked and played by turns until 
the sun went down red and beautiful. 

“ Oh, father,” began Paul the next afternoon, 
“ let us take old Swayback and have a long 
ride over the prairie, will you?” 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


143 


I don’t know about it,” mother said 
quickly, “ I don’t like to have you go too far 
from home.” 

“Well, said fatheVy “I guess there’s no 
harm ; better let ’em go.” 

“Perhaps it’s safe,” answered mother; but 
she stood in the doorway, and looked and 
looked and looked after them until they were 
only a moving shape away off across the level 
prairie. 

“ Shan’t we go back now ? ” said Paul. 

“ Oh, no, let us go a little farther,” Albert 
answered, and they went on, singing and 
shouting and hallooing, as happy as the 
meadow larks that flew out of the thick grass. 

All of a sudden, Paul, who was behind, 
clutched his brother’s arm ; “ What was that ? ” 
and before Albert could answer, they heard it 
again. 


144 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


“ Indians ! ” cried both the boys, and with a 
quick turn of the bridle rein, Swayback was 
racing for home and for their lives. 

Now the horse had lived in Kansas longer 
than the boys had, and he was even more 
afraid of an Indian than they were. His long 
legs fairly flew over the ground, his great 
muscles throbbed, and the fire in his eyes 
seemed to say : ‘‘ I must get these boys home 
to their mother.” 

“ Oh, Albert,” gasped Paul between his sobs, 
“can he get us home? They will catch us, 
and scalp us, and what will mother do?” 

There were two of the Indians and they 
were yelling fiercely as they came racing after 
the boys. 

“ Albert, Albert, I can see our chimney now. 
Oh, Swayback, dear Swayback, hurry, hurry, 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


145 


The old bay was making a noble effort. 
His nostrils were red and his sides beat under 
the clinging feet of the two boys. He knew 
as well as the riders did, what it meant if the 
Indians should catch them. Thump, thump, 
thump, go his feet on the soft turf. Now 
he is getting very near to the barn, and in 
another moment he plunges in at the door 
and stands trembling in his stall. And in a 
moment more the Indians come whooping in 
after him; — but they do not see the boys. 
Out of the barn they dash and peer around its 
corners ; then into the barn again, but they 
cannot find the two boys. They looked 
toward the house, but a shot from fathers 
gun on one side and from mothers gun 
on the other, and their fear of the soldiers 
at the agency not far away, made them 
afraid to stay long, and they went whooping 



14G 




ANIMAL WORLD. * 


off across the prairie and were soon lost to 
sight. 

Then mother stole out to look for her 
boys. 

“They’re not here,” said the father; “the 
Indians have killed them and left them out on 
the prairie, and the horse has come home.” 

“ I saw them on the horse’s back ; ” said the 
white-faced mother, and she looked here and 
there and everywhere, until by-and-by she 
found them. 

Now where do you suppose they were? 

Close by the barn was an old, dry well only 
four or five feet deep, and partly filled with 
barn-yard rubbish. When old Swayback 
dashed into the barn, the boys were thrown 
from his back, plump into the well and deep 
into the rubbish, and the Indians did not see 
them. 


148 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


They were sadly bruised, but mother took 
them into the house and made as great a fuss 
over them as if they had just got back from 
Europe. Father praised their courage and 
good riding, and the boys praised old Sway- 
back. They never afterward had an apple 
that he did not get at least the core of it ; they 
never drove him or rode him that they did not 
let him stop occasionally to get some nibbles 
of green grass, and if a horse as good as old 
Swayback could have been spoiled, that Coil 
family certainly would have spoiled him, for 
they knew he had saved the lives of Paul and 
Albert. 



CHARLES DICKENS’ CATS. 

Charles Dickens was an Englishman who 
wrote many interesting stories. He loved 
animals and was very kind to them. Once a 
large white cat brought her kittens into his 


149 



150 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


Study and put them down on a cushion in the 
corner. “ Mary,” he said to the maid, take 
the kittens out, please.” Mary did so. 

•The next morning Mother White Cat stole 
in again with her kittens and put them, one 
by one, on the cushion. “ Mary,” the author 
called out, “ please take Mother White Cat 
and her kittens out once more.” 

The third morning, when every one was 
busy at work, the cat ran into the study with 
her kittens just as she had done before, but 
this time instead of putting them in the 
corner, she laid them down right at her 
master s feet and then stood still and looked 
up into his face; her eyes seemed to say, 
''Please let us stay here.” And he did let 
them stay. 

The kittens jumped up the windows, pulled 
at the curtains, bit at Mr. Dickens’ shoes and 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


151 


shoe strings, ran after their own tails, and 
teased their mother when she wished to take a 
nap on the rug before the fire. They had 
good times every day. 

When they grew old enough they were 
given away to the author’s friends. He kept 
just one of them and she was deaf. He 
called her, “ Williamina.” She followed him 
everywhere, just as a dog follows his master. 

One evening he sat reading at a small table 
on which stood a lighted candle. Williamina 
was sitting on the back of his chair. All at 
once the candle went out. 

“Why,” said Mr. Dickens, “that is odd.” 
He turned in his chair to light it again and 
saw puss looking right into his eyes. He 
stroked her back with his hand and then went 
on reading. Very soon the candle went 
almost out again. Mr. Dickens turned round 


152 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


just in time to see puss draw back her paw 
with which she had been striking at the flame. 
“ Poor puss,” he said to her, “ are you lone- 
some? Are you putting out the light so that 
I will talk to you ? ” Then he took her in his 
arms and stroked her soft fur until she went 


HARRY’S PONY. 


Everybody at the railroad station was 
excited. There were two trains whizzing in 
from opposite directions, but that certainly 
could not frighten anybody, for it happened 
every day, and the people were used to tracks, 
and trains, and switch engines, and the toot, 
toot, toot of the whistle. Oh, no, it was none 
of those things. Something very different 
had excited everybody at the station. 

Across the tracks they saw coming a pony 
cart with two little girls in it, and the pony 
was running away. The little girls could not 
hold him. He would get to the tracks just as 
the train got there and then — - oh ! — what 
would happen ? Some of the people turned 
their heads away so that they might not see 


153 



154 




ANIMAL WORLD. 


155 


the sad sight; others ran toward the pony cry- 
ing, “ Whoa, whoa, whoa,” but he only ran 
faster toward the crossing. 

All at once a loud, clear whistle rang out 
on the air. Everybody heard it, and pony 
heard it and stopped running so suddenly that 
the people held their breath in surprise. Again 
the whistle rang out, and now young Harry 
Gay, fifteen years old, was seen running across 
the tracks toward the pony. The pony stood 
quite still while Harry took hold of the bridle 
and soothed him till his fear was all gone. 

The little girls had jumped out of the cart, 
and they stood with white faces, too frightened 
then to thank Harry. He helped them in, and 
jumped in after them to drive them to their 
home. 

Their father was just hurrying down the 
steps to look for them. “ Oh, papa,” they burst 


15^ 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


out together, “ if Harry’s whistle had not 
stopped our pony we might have been 
killed ! ” 

“ Yes, my darlings, I have heard about it. 
How was it, Harry, that your whistle stopped 
the horse ? ” 

“He belonged to me for two years, Mr. 
Bird, and I taught him a great many things. 
I had whistles for signs. At one loud whistle 
he would stop instantly ; at two whistles he 
would turn round, at three he would back, and 
there were other things he could do. As soon 
as I saw him running away to-day I gave the 
signal for him to stop and he obeyed it right 
away.” 

“You sold him, I believe,” said Mr. Bird, 
“ because you did not think you could afford to 
keep him after your father died. ” 

“ Yes, sir,” said Harry. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


157 


“ He is yours again from to-day,” said the 
little girls’ father. “ A pony that can obey 
like that must belong to the kind master who 
taught him.” 

Harry felt such a lump in his throat that he 
could hardly answer, but he put his arms 
around the pony’s neck, and Mr. Bird fully 
understood how happy he was. 



I 




158 


% \ 













THE QUAIL MOTHER. 

Peter was ten years old when he first went 
hunting with his father. His father was a 
good marksman and never failed to bring 
home partridges or quails. 

Old Treasure, the dog, would take the birds 
in his mouth when they were shot, bring them 
to his master, and drop them at his feet. 

Peter and his father had gone but a little 
way when a quail flew up almost under old 
Treasures nose. She flew as if she were 
wounded. She would fly a little way and 
then drop to the ground. Treasure kept so 
near to her that the hunter dared not fire lest 
he might hit the dog. In a few minutes the 
dog caught her and brought her to his master. 

Has she been wounded ? ” asked Peter. 


159 


160 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


“ No,” said his father, “ she must have her 
nest of young ones not far from here, for she 
pretended to be hurt, so as to draw the dog 
away from her nest and save her little ones. 
But she carried the play too far ; she will not 



live, for Treasure has hurt her badly in catch- 
ing her.” 

Peter looked at the pretty bird as she lay in 
his father s hand. It seemed to him that she 
was saying to herself, “ Why should I die ? I 
was doing my duty. I tried to save my little 



ANIMAL WORLD. 


161 


brood by attracting the dog away, and now I 
am caught.” 

He touched her soft feathers and said, “ Oh, 
papa, maybe she will live.” 

“No,” said his father, “she will die. In 
another moment her body will shiver and her 
eyes will close.” 

So it happened, and Peter burst into tears. 

“Who will feed the poor little ones, now?” 
he said. 

“ The male bird will take care of them. 
Holloa! Treasure has found the nest.” 

And there between the branches of some 
low plants, Peter saw four little quails push- 
ing close against each other, with their necks 
stretched out. 

“ Papa, papa,” cried Peter through his tears, 
“call Treasure or he may kill them.” His 
father called the dog, then sat down on the 


162 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


ground to rest himself. Peter came up, took 
the dead bird in his hand and said, “ May I 
have this quail for mine?” 

What will you do with it ? ” 

“ Bury it.” 

Bury it ? ” 

“ Yes, there near its nest. Give me your 
knife, please, to dig its grave.” 

Peter took the knife, dug a little grave with 
it, kissed the quail on its breast, and put her 
down into the ground; then he filled the 
space with earth and put fresh, green grass 
and flowers over it. Soon after he and his 
father started for home, but Peter kept turn- 
ing around to look at the little grave, and he 
never again wanted to go shooting with his 
father. 



A GRIZZLY. 

A hunter lay one night by his camp fire in 
the deep woods. He heard branches break 
and leaves rustle, as birds and other ani- 
mals moved about ; he heard owls hoot and 
coyotes bark; but suddenly a hoarser and more 
frightful noise than any of the others fell upon 
his ears. It was the cry of the grizzly bear. 
He looked well to his gun and scarcely closed 


163 


164- 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


his eyes all night. When the sun rose he 
began his day s march. It was along a wide 
river. About noon he heard running and yell- 
ing on the opposite side of the stream, and 
soon a number of Indians came running down 
the bank and jumped into the river, which 
they intended to swim. Not all of the 
Indians were men. There were a few squaws, 
and some of them had babies strapped to their 
backs. The hunter thought at first that the 
Indians might be after him, and he stole into 
a thicket of shrubs and trees to hide. As he 
did so he heard the same hoarse cry he had 
noticed in the middle of the night. He 
peered out from his hiding place and saw, on 
a high bank on the other shore, a great gray 
mass, which he knew was a grizzly bear. It 
flung itself down the steep slope, plunged into 
the river, and began to swim with great speed. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


165 


“Ah,” thought the hunter, “the Indians did 
not see me\ they were running from the 
grizzly.” 

As he watched, he saw that every one of the 
Indian men had swam safely across, but some 
of the squaws were still quite a distance from 
the bank. 

The bear swam so fast that it had almost 
caught up with the last of the squaws, who 
had twin babies on her back. The Indians 
shot poisoned arrows at the huge beast, but 
the distance was too great, and the hunter saw 
that in a moment more the grizzly would be 
near enough to the mother and her babies to 
seize them. 

He could not look quietly at the sight any 
longer. He stepped out of his hiding place, 
rested his gun on the trunk of a tree, and 
fired. The ball hit the bear near the head. 


166 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


It dived several times and' the water round it 
was red with blood ; but it soon came swim- 
ming on after the squaw. 

Again the hunter fired and hit the bear, but 
did not kill it ; however, the shot stopped it 
for a little, so that the poor squaw had time to 
clamber up the bank and join the other Indians. 

Meantime the bear came out of the water so 
quickly that the hunter was only barely able 
to reload his gun and climb a tree. The 
grizzly bear is not much of a climber, though 
many bears are, and while it was making a 
fierce effort to get up the tree, the hunter took 
careful aim, fired, and the big animal fell in a 
heap on the ground. 

Soon the hunter came down from the tree 
and skinned the bear. 

The Indians came out of the bushes and 
made friendly signs to the hunter. He made 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


167 


friendly signs to them in return. Then 
they danced around him and sang songs in 
his honor. When they had ended their rejoic- 
ing, the hunter gave them plenty of bear meat, 
and they went their way and he went his. 



WHAT THE TWINS FOUND OUT. 

It had rained hard in the night, and as soon 
as the twins were dressed they were out in 
the garden to see if the rain had opened the 
yellow rose buds. The sun was sparkling 
in the drops on the flowers and leaves, the 
sparrows were chirping, and Ruth and Dor- 
othy felt so gay that they hippity-hopped 
down past all the flower beds and came to 
the croquet ground and the vegetable garden 
beyond it. 

Here they stopped very suddenly, for right 
in the path, and all around the borders of the 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


169 


garden, lay scores of earth worms ; they 
looked as if something had crushed them to 
death. 

“Wherever could they have come from?” 
said Ruth, bending down to make sure they 
were all dead. 

“ Maybe they live in the trees and the rain 
last night washed them out of their houses up 
there,” Dorothy said. 

“ No,” answered Ruth, after looking round 
the garden, “ there are no trees near enough 
for that ; let s ask papa.” 

So they hippity-hopped back to the house, 
where they found papa’s face quite hidden by 
the Morning Herald ; but they began to talk, 
both at once, and papa at last lowered his 
paper enough to see them and to say, “ I don’t 
know. I’m sure ; ask mamma, she’s been to 
Vassar, she’ll know.” 


170 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


Off they ran to mamma, who' was in the 
dining room putting flowers into a vase for 
the breakfast table ; but mamma knew nothing 
about it, except that the children better not 
touch them as they were “ nasty ; and the 
twins ate their breakfast and went off to 
school, still wondering where the earth worms 
came from. 

On the way they met their cousin Sam. 
“ Oh, Sam ! ” said Ruth, “ were there any worms 
at your house this morning?” 

“Yes, the yards full of ’em; but you can’t 
use ’em for bait, they’re dead.” 

“ We don’t want any bait, we’re not going 
fishing ; but w’d like to know where they came 
from.” 

“ Oh, that’s easy enough; probably their eggs 
were floating around somewhere in the air 
like cobwebs, and the rain hatched them out 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


171 


and pelted them,” said Sam with that wise 
air which a few boys have when they talk 
to girls. 

“ I don’t see how eggs heavy enough to hold 
earth worms could float in the air, ” said 
Dorothy ; and Ruth added, “ Nor I.” Where- 
upon Sam ran off to join some boys he saw a 
block ahead and left the puzzling thing still 
unsettled. 

When the twins got to school, they found 
m.any earth worms along the edges of the side- 
walks there, and a discussion arose about them, 
which led to asking the teacher where they 
came from. She didn’t know either, though 
she had been in college for four years ; she 
read the cyclopedia a whole hour at noon, but 
not one of those great books said any thing 
about earth worms being found all over the 
ground after a rain. 


172 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


''Til ask Peter Cowan,” said the teacher; 
“ for if he always does have poor grammar and 
history lessons, he sees more with those gray 
eyes of his than any other child in school.” 

“Yes’m,” said Peter promptly; “they, live, 
you know, in holes in the ground but they 
like fresh air pretty well, so they keep their 
heads pretty near the top of their holes ; their 
heads are a darker color than their l^odies; 
just about the color of the ground, their heads 
are ; I s’pose that’s so the birds can’t see ’em 
quite so well, for they like to eat ’em. 

“ When a good rain comes, it fills their holes 
right up and drowns ’em, and washes ’em out 
of the ground ; or if they crawl out without 
waiting to be drowned out, the rain pelts ’em 
and kills ’em anyway, they’re so soft.” 

“They suffer, then, from floods in their 
houses,” said the teacher, “ in the same way 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


173 


people often do. Many times we read how 
cyclones and floods and other evils come upon 
men, and kill them as suddenly as the rain 
kills the earth worms. But it seems worse, 
doesn’t it, to have people killed in great 
numbers than to have earth worms ? ” 

“ Earth worms are awfully useful,” said 
Peter. “ They plough through the soil and 
make it moist and loose and light and fertile 
so that things grow splendidly in it ; they are 
food for moles, and birds, and frogs, and toads, 
and they make first-class bait for fishing.” 

The teacher was delighted to hear Peter 
talk so well upon a subject of which the other 
children knew little or nothing, and she was 
glad, also, to find out the truth about earth- 
worms. 

Ruth and Dorothy had not lost a word of 
Peter’s talk, and at dinner time they told it all 


174 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


to papa and mamma, who found it very 
interesting. 

The next morning, when the twins were 
digging a hole in the flower bed to transplant 
a geranium, they found several earth worms in 
the soil. They lifted them out carefully on 
the trowel, put in the plant, and gently laid 
the worms back in the hole again. 

“We will never kill one, never,” said 
Dorothy ; “ they like to live, and, besides, 
they’re so useful they can’t be spared.” 




AS THE CROW HEARD IT. 


“ Good evening ! ” said a voice from the 
depths of the big fig tree. 

The timid rabbit stopped in his tracks, just 
under the shadow of the grape row, and 
looked up. 

“ Good evening, I say ! ” said the voice 
again, and then he saw a crow sitting on 
a branch of the tree and peering down at 
him. 

“ Oh, good evening, ma’am ; it’s a pleasant 
evening. I was just walking over to the 


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ANIMAL WORLD. 


ditch to hear the concert that the frogs give 
every night.” 

“Bother the frogs!” said the crow. “The 
house family don’t like them at all. They all 
sing on a different pitch. I wouldn’t go.” 

“ Perhaps — I — wont,” said the rabbit, who 
liked always to agree with everybody. “ I didn’t 
know they sang on different pitches. I may 
go over to the sweet corn patch, just to see 
how it’s growing.” 

“ Bother the sweet corn patch I ” answered 
the crow. 

“ Did you hear about the convention the 
trees held to-day ? ” 

“Yes, I heard about it, though I wasn’t 
there, ma’am.” 

“ I was ; I sat in the thick branches of a 
tree and heard the whole affair. I’ll tell you 
about it.” 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


177 


The crow’s spirits rose now that she had a 
listener ; she rather looked down on rabbits 
but she would talk to them when she couldn’t 
get anyone else to listen. 

If you have ever lain down under a shady 
tree in the meadow to take a nice nap, and 
been kept awake by the “ caw, caw, caw,” of a 
flock of noisy crows, then you know all about 
how fond they are of talking. 

“ Yes, I can tell you everything that hap- 
pened in the convention ; I was there. I sat 
in the thick branches of a tree and heard the 
whole affair. The trees wanted to choose a 
king, and each one was to present his own 
claims for the honor. 

“ The pepper tree spoke first. It said : ‘ None 
of you are so large and graceful as I am. 
Everybody speaks of the beautiful pepper tree 
and all travelers gather branches of my red 


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ANIMAL WORLD. 


berries to carry home with them. I think I 
am the most admired tree in the garden or 
grove.’ 

“ ‘ I,’ said the fig tree, ‘ am descended from 
one of the oldest families in the world. The 
Bible speaks of me over and over again. I 
make a fine shade and my fruit is nice, so I 
have several claims to be king.’ ” 

“ Why, ma’am,” said the rabbit, looking up 
at the crow in open-mouthed astonishment, 
“ however can you remember so well ? ” 

“ Oh, it’s no trouble for any of the crow 
family to remember, though of course they’re 
not all as good at it as / am,” said the crow ; 
and she didn’t tell the rabbit that when she 
couldn’t think of the exact words of the 
speeches she had heard, she put in any that 
came handy. I suppose she learned that way of 
doing from watching the newspaper reporters. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


179 


“ Yes, I remember almost everything I have 
ever heard. I can say the next speech, too, 
without a mistake. 

“ I bear a fruit that pleases the palate of 
every age and nation,’ said the peach tree; 
‘and where will you find one of equal beauty? 
My cheeks, glowing like the rose, and my 
delicate green, are the delight of every eye ; 
just look at me for a moment. ’ 

“ Then she shook her graceful boughs lightly, 
so that all might see the lovely red fruit with 
its delicate green leafiness around it. 

“ It did look pretty, but it made me think of 
a proud young girl, shaking out her flounces 
and ruffles. 

“ Then the pear tree told how delicious its 
fruit was; and the almond-nut tree and the 
olive praised themselves until I was really 
worn out to hear such self-conceit. Bother 


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ANIMAL WORLD. 


self-conceit ! ” said the crow. “ I am glad our 
family is modest.” 

“ Yes, indeed, maam,” said the polite rabbit; 
and then he ventured to ask, “ Didn’t the 
orange and lemon trees say anything in the 
convention ? ” 

“ I’m just coming to that, if you’ll only 
wait,” said the crow impatiently. 

“ Oh, certainly ; yes, of course ; excuse me, 
ma’am,” said the very polite rabbit. 

“ I was just coming to that. The orange 
and lemon trees had not said a word and I 
was disappointed, because they are really very 
pretty with their glossy green leaves and their 
bright yellow fruit. But at last the orange 
did say a few low words about its usefulness, 
though it didn’t boast at all. 

“ Then suddenly that beautiful, great pepper 
tree that stands near the gate, rustled its 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


181 


boughs, dangled its bunches of red peppers, 
and made a fine speech. I believe it had 
learned every word of it before the convention 
began, for I don’t know any bird, much less 
any tree, that could make so fine a speech 
without getting ready before hand, unless, per- 
haps, it might be one of our crow family could 
do it.” 

“ Oh, certainly you could, madam,” said the 
very, very polite rabit. 

“ I shouldn’t wonder,” said the crow ; “ but 
listen to what the pepper tree said: ‘Trees 
of the garden and the grove,’ it said, ‘ I think 
we cannot do better than to choose for our 
king that one among us who is the most 
industrious. Do we not all agree what one 
that is ? 

“ ‘What tree is it that is never at rest for an 
hour in the whole year? What tree puts 


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ANIMAL WORLD. 


forth its white blossoms for the next years 
fruit while it is still bending under the golden 
load of this year? Where else -in the grove 
or garden can you see a tree making new 
flower buds and flowers before men have 
relieved it of the golden fruit offerings which 
bend its branches with so rich a burden? 
What other tree is so untiring ? Where else 
is seen such industry ? Let us make the 
orange tree king, and its cousin, the lemon, 
shall help it to reign.’ ” 

“ Goodness, ma’am, I never saw anybody with 
a memory like yours,” said the rabbit. 

“ Yes, it is good, but don’t interrupt till I 
get through. 

“When the pepper tree had finished its speech 
— I am sure he had learned the whole thing 
by heart the day before — all the other trees 
nodded approval, and so the orange tree is king. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


183 


“ But I must be off to the woods; good-day.” 

“ Good-day, ma’am,” said the very polite 
rabbit with a very low bow; and the crow 
took her flight, while the rabbit went on to the 
frog concert, stopping as he passed by, to offer 
his humble but polite congratulations to the 
new king of the trees. 



A FOX FABLE. 

Once upon a time there was an old fox who 
lived over the hills. He and his family 
always had plenty to eat. The old fox could 
catch a chicken or a rabbit or a wild bird, at 
almost any time of the day or night, he was 
so cunning. 

One day, when he came home, he said, “ I 
found a new house to-day ; it is so small that 
I thought perhaps a family of prairie chickens 
lived in it. Prairie chickens are good eating. 


184 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


185 


so I watched the house nearly, all day, but saw 
nobody and heard nobody. 

At last, just as I was about ready to give 
up and come home, the key clicked in the 
lock, the door opened, and out came the fattest 
little white hen you ever saw. She went to 
the wood-pile and picked up a small basket 
full of chips, I dare say to boil the tea-kettle 
for her supper. I sprang out at her, but she 
was, oh, so quick ! She flew in at her door, 
slammed it in a jiffy, and I heard the key 
turn. She was wonderfully spry for anything 
so plump.” 

“ It’s too bad you couldn’t get her father,” 
said the eldest little Miss Fox. “ A fat hen is 
the very nicest of all the very nice things you 
bring home to us.” 

“ Oh, don’t be so sorrowful, darling,” said 
the kind father, ‘‘ I’ll have her for you in a day 


186 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


or two ; she can’t escape me,” and he beamed 
upon them all, while the children clapped their 
paws together and sang : 

“ Oh, our daddy is a hunter of very high degree; 

Our daddy keeps us sleek and fat, — ta, ra, 
ra, la, ra, lee ; 

He brings us home such dainty birds to 
make into a stew. 

Or else we bake ’em in a pie; — ta, ra ra, la, 
ra, loo. 

Oh, long live daddy. 

Oh, long live daddy, 

Long live daddy, 

Ta, ra, ra, la, ra, loo.” 

When the song was ended Father Fox 
smiled again upon his adoring family. He 
was pleased, like most fathers, that there was 
one place in the world where he was admired 
and esteemed beyond everybody else. 

The next morning he slung a sack over his 
shoulder, and said to Mrs. Fox, “Now, my 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


187 


love, put on the big kettle and have it full of 
boiling water, for I shall certainly bring the 
little white hen home with me to-night ; ” and 
off he gayly trotted followed by loving, ''good- 
bys ” from the children. 

It was long after dark when he came home 
and the sack was EMPTY, and he was 
cross, as disappointed people are quite likely 
to be. 

He had gone from home in the morning 
straight to the little white hen s house, and 
had hidden himself under some bushes in her 
garden. She came out at night to get some 
chips, but when he dashed at her, she flew in 
at her door, locked it, and put the key in the 
deep pocket of her gown, so there was no 
chance of his getting in. 

He was cross but not discouraged ; he kept 
going there for several days, and the family 


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ANIMAL WORLD. 


were getting thin he brought home so little to 
eat ; as for himself, he had a headache nearly 
every night from thinking so hard how he 
could ever get the fat little hen, while she — 
poor little creature — had made up her mind 
she would have to move away somewhere. 
Her health was suffering for want of exercise as 
she hardly dared to go out in the daytime at all. 

On the seventh day the fox seemed more 
cheerful when he was ready to start, and as he 
threw the sack over his shoulder, he said, “ I 
get her to-day ; no mistake this time ; have 
the kettle boiling without fail,” and he ran 
swiftly out of sight. 

All day he waited patiently and at last out 
came the neat little hen to get chips for 
cooking her supper. 

The fox stole out from the bushes, crept 
along behind the house, popped around the 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


189 


corner, and right in at the door when the hen’s 
back was turned to it. 

He whisked behind the door, and hid 
himself. 

In came the little hen with her chips, 
singing softly to herself, 

“ The fox has gone away. 

Oh, joy to tell; 

The fox has gone away, 

And all is well.” 

She gave the door a little push to shut it, 
and — oh, horror! there was the old fox. 
With a scream, she let the basket of chips fall 
on her neat floor, and she flew up into the 
rafters of her house. 

“ Oh, ho, my dame, 

Is that your game ? 

You’ll come down quick. 

When you see my trick,” 


190 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


sang the fox. Then he whirled round and 
round and round as fast as ever he could after 
his bushy tail, and it made the poor, frightened 
little hen so dizzy to see him whirl that she 
fell down from the rafters in a faint, and — oh 
— woe! the old fox had her at last. 

He put her into the sack, threw it over his 
shoulder and set out, almost dancing, for 
home. He laughed loud and long to think 
how he would be admired by his family when 
he got home ; he was so noisy that the poor 
little hen woke from her faint but almost 
fainted again when she found where she 
was. 

“ Oh, what shall I do ? What can I do ? ” she 
wailed softly. “ I shall be eaten up alive, for 
I don’t believe they ever stop to cook any- 
thing. Oh, dear, oh, dear, is there nobody to 
rescue me?” 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


191 


Then all at once she remembered her 
pocket, and that it had her thread and needle 
and scissors in it, so she just took out her 
scissors and snipped a hole in the sack, flew 
lightly out, and rolled a big stone in at the 
hole ; then she sewed it up with her thread 
and needle, and flew home, where she locked 
her door snug and tight, and made her house 
all tidy again. 

The old fox went toiling over the hills with 
the big stone in his sack. “ My,” he said, 
“ but the little white hen is a heavy one. She 
is the fattest fowl I have seen this year. It 
fairly makes my back ache to carry her, she is 
so heavy.” 

When he came in sight of his house, there 
stood all of his family in the door-way, calling 
out, “ Have you surely got her this time, 
father ? ” “I have, indeed, my dears,” he 


192 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


answers joyfully. “ Have you got the kettle 
boiling?’’ “Oh, yes, dear, it’s so hot it 
will cook her in one minute,” says Mother 
Fox. “ She’s so cunning that she may try 
to get away. I’ll just hold the sack over 
the kettle and let her go plump into it, so 
she can’t play any tricks on us,” said the 
Fox. 

“ We’ll all help ! ” cried the family ; and they 
stood close up to the kettle, and took hold of 
the sack to shake the hen out, — or to shake 
her in, — perhaps I should say, when — ker- 
chunk ! — down went the big stone and 
splashed the boiling water over all the fox 
family so that they were dreadfully scalded, 
and frightened nearly to death besides. They 
jumped out of the windows, howling and cry- 
ing, and ran off into the deep woods and never 
came back. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


193 


The little white hen ? Oh, she lived a long, 
peaceful life ; but you see she would have 
been cooked and eaten, if she hadn’t been one 
of those wise people who pockets. 




194 


PUNCHINELLO. 


His mother was one of a large family of 
water monkeys that prowl along the sea-shore 
in Burmah. They catch oysters and shrimps 
for their food. 

One day a native caught this young monkey. 
He sold him for three cents to an English 
gentleman who lived in Burmah. The gentle- 
man named him, “ Punchinello.” 

He was about as large as a tiny kitten at 
first ; he grew larger very fast but he did not 
grow good. He was always in mischief. 

There was a baby in the family, and it had, 
as is the custom with babies, a milk bottle, 
which the bad little monkey was always 
stealing. 


195 


196 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


He would creep slyly into the house and 
hide until he saw a chance to grab the bottle 
from the baby in the cradle; then he would 
scamper out of the door and up a tree that 
stood just in front of the house. When he 
had sucked every drop of milk from the bottle 
he would pull off the rubber nipple, and dash 
the bottle down to the ground as hard as he 
could, while with his head tipped to one side 
he watched it break into bits. The rubber 
nipple he would chew to a pulp. 

The family could not break him of this bad 
habit. If they whipped him when he came 
down from the tree, he would steal the bottle 
again the next day, and stay in his high perch 
twice as long. Whipping did not seem to 
make him any better. I wonder if whipping 
ever makes anybody better. 

Punchinello would sit gravely on the floor 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


197 


and watch the clock tick. He would turn his 
head to this side and to that and look up at 
it with his little twinkling eyes as if he were 
asking, “ Who is making that ball and wire 
move back and forth ? ” 

One day when everybody was out of the 
house he stole in, and he thought, “ Now is 
my time to see what makes that thing go.” 

His nimble little fingers soon opened the 
clock, and when the family came back, wheels, 
hands, dial-plate, and wire were strewn over 
the floor, and the monkey was asleep on the 
house roof. 

Punchinello liked a chicken bone as well as 
puss did. After the family dinner one day 
puss was eating a nice bone with great enjoy- 
ment. The monkey came up to her side and 
put one arm around her as if he loved her 
dearly, then he sharply pinched her ribs. 


198 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


Puss turned to spit at him, when the monkey 
seized the bone with his other arm and made 
off with it. 

No knot that was ever tied in his chain 
could keep him fast. His nimble little fingers 
and sharp teeth could undo any of them. 
The servants hated him he was so mis- 
chievous. He would throw pots and pans, 
knives and boxes, out of the doors and 
windows until the yard looked as if a cyclone 
had passed by. 

It was not agreeable to the servants to have 
their kitchens plundered, and it was not agree- 
able to Punchinello to give up his fun. One 
day the bright little fellow disappeared. His 
master said that some of his enemies must 
have killed him, and I am not surprised that 
he thought so ; are you ? 



THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE. 
Said a hare to a tortoise, “ Good sir, what a 
while 

You have been only crossing the way; 
Why, I really believe to go half a mile, 

You must travel two nights and a day.” 

“ I am very contented,” the creature replied, 

“ Though I walk but a tortoise’s pace ; 

But if you think proper, the point to decide, 
We will run half a mile in a race.” 

“ Very good,” said the hare : said the tortoise, 
“ Proceed, 

And the fox shall decide who has won ; ” 


11)9 


200 • 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


Then the hare started off at incredible speed, 
But the tortoise walked leisurely on. 

“ Come, Tortoise, friend Tortoise, walk on,” 
said the hare, 

‘‘While I shall stay here for my dinner; 

Why, ’twill take you a month at that rate to 
get there, — 

Then how can you hope to be winner? ” 

But the tortoise could hear not a word that 
she said 

For he was far distant behind ; 

So the hare felt secure while at leisure she fed, 
And took a sound nap when she dined. 

At last the slow walker came up with the hare. 
And there, fast asleep, did he spy her ; 

And he cunningly crept, with such caution and 
care. 

That she woke not, although he passed by her. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


201 


‘‘Well, now,” thought the hare when she 
opened her eyes, 

“ For the race, and I soon shall have done 
it;” 

But who can describe her chagrin and surprise 
When she found that the tortoise had won 
it? 

Moral. 

Thus plain, plodding, people, we often shall 
find. 

Will leave hasty, confident people behind. 




THE WOLF PACK. 

Mother Grum was getting very uneasy ; she 
could not keep the half-grown, hungry cubs 
quiet any longer. She had sung, 

“ By low, baby bunting. Daddy’s gone a- 
hunting,” 

over and over again to them, she had cuffed 
them soundly, she had coaxed them to be still 
for a minute or two by telling them that their 
father might soon come with a breakfast for 
them, and now she couldn’t think of anything 
else to do ; so she let them yelp. 


202 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


203 


She was nervous herself because Father 
Grum had been gone so much longer than 
usual. When he left home to go out with 
the pack, he had said to her, “ I think we shall 
run down a fat deer within two or three hours ; 
so have the children all ready, and bring them 
out to get a share of the feast when you hear 
us driving in this way ; they are big enough 
now to take their own part in dividing game, 
and better learn how at once ; ” then he waved 
his tail for good-bye and was off. 

But it had been twenty hours since he went, 
and Mother Grum was so uneasy that she 
ordered the cubs to stay close hidden in the 
den, while she ran around as quickly as she 
could to Mother Grimm s, to ask if she had 
heard anything of the pack. 

She trotted along in the gray light, — for 
the sun had not yet risen, — smelling every 


204 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


fresh wave of air to make certain that no 
hunters or dogs were about. 

Mother Grimm lived in the next heap of 
rocks, only a mile away, and it did not take 
long to get to her den. Mother Grum 
crouched low and crawled in ; two great eyes 
looked out at her fiercely, but when she said, 
“ A good day to you^ sister of the pack leader,” 
the eyes looked less fierce, and a voice 
answered : “ Oh, it is you, mate of my brother; 
is the pack coming ? ” 

“ It is about the pack I have come. I am 
afraid that hunters or traps have brought 
sorrow upon them. They are gone many 
hours now and yet there is no sound of them 
in the air.” 

“Have no fears, Wolf-mother; they will 
come. Keen must be the hunters that can 
run down my brother, the leader of the pack, 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


205 


or Grimm, who is always second in the chase; 
and the trap was never made that is cunning 
enough to deceive them. They will come.” 

“ But it is long, long, since they started, and 
the cubs are very hungry,” said Mother Grum. 

“ See to it that they do not complain, and 
cry and howl, mate of my brother. Wolves 
must learn patience ; often we must watch and 
prowl from the sunset to the sunrise before 
we can seize our prey. Wolves must learn 
patience.” 

“ But let us go out,” Mother Grimm went on 
to say ; “ and listen to the sounds and see 
what scents the air carries.” 

The sun was just about ready to come up 
from behind the low peaks, as they crawled 
through the opening at the mouth of the den. 

“ Do you get any scent of the pack ? ” asked 
Mother Grum. 


206 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


“ No, but neither do I get any scent of 
hunters or of dogs ; there is no enemy coming 
this way.'’ 

“ Do you hear any sound of the pack ? ” 
asked Mother Grum again. 

“ No, there is no sound in the air.” 

“ I will go back, then, sister of the pack 
leader, and come soon again to see if there are 
signs.” 

“ No, I will come to bring you word if there 
is any news for us. Do not fear, and com- 
mand the cubs to be quiet and patient. They 
are wolves. Good-day, mate of my brother;” 
and she stood, listening and scenting, while 
Mother Grum ran swiftly back to her own 
family. 

As Mother Grimm stood there waiting for 
any news the air might bring. Red Fox 
came trotting over the rocks behind her den. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


207 


Mother Grimm did not even bow to him, for 
only the week before he had played her the 
meanest sort of a trick. He had told her that 
there was a nice, fat sheep over the hills about 
nine miles off, and she had run all the way 
there to get it, and then found that it was 
hung up in a hunter s campy where there were 
men and guns and a fire; so now she did not 
even bow to the fox ; but the fox has no feel- 
ings to speak of, so they were not hurt at all 
by a snub, and he stopped right by the side of 
Mother Grimm and said, “ My dear Madam 
Grimm, you look as fresh as a fish just off the 
hook this morning. Has the pack come back 
yet ? ” 

She would not have answered him at all 
except that she knew what a smart one he 
was to find out everything that was going on 
anywhere, and she thought very likely he 


208 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


knew something about the pack. So she said, 
very icily, “ No ; when did you see it ? ” 

“ I haven’t seen it at all, my dear, fresh 
madam, but I saw a flock of kites and 
buzzards flying toward the ram creek some 
time ago, and I thought they must know the 
pack had some game in there somewhere. 
But I must be off ; I have an engagement 
with some friends for a game breakfast. 
Please give my best love to your most beauti- 
ful cubs, my dear madam ! ” and off the sly 
flatterer ran. 

As soon as he was out of sight. Mother 
Grimm trotted to her brother’s family, and 
told what the fox had said. “ He so seldom 
tells the truth,” she said, “ that I do not know 
whether to believe him or not ; but if the 
buzzards and kites are going out, very likely 
they see prospect of a feast in some game the 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


209 


pack has found, and we may as well run out 
that way.” 

So the two wolf mothers, with their cubs 
following them, set out. They had gone only 
V a mile or two when 

t they heard the howling 

and yelping of the 
pack, and soon the 
chase came into sight. 

A splendid stag was 
running a few rods 
^ W ahead of the wolves. 

I ^ \ He swam the narrow 

• stream and bounded 

into a strip of woods. His sides were panting 
heavily, his coat was wet, his tongue was out, 
and he looked as if he had been pursued for 
hours. 

Close after him tore the wolf pack. Father 


210 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


Grum was leading as usual. Their red 
tongues hung from their mouths and they, 
too, showed that they had run long and hard, 
yet with loud cries they dashed along in the 
chase. 

Suddenly the stag turned upon the pack. 
“See, cubs, see! ” cried Mother Grimm. “ How 
proudly he tosses his head and goes at the 
pack' with his fine antlers and his strong feet. 
Oh, he is noble game, but our pack are 
many and strong; Look! look! and come!” 
saying which, with a fierce rush, she led them 
to join in the assault of the pack. 

Some of the wolves sprang at the stag’s 
throat, some at his legs, others at his sides 
and back, until soon the noble fellow was 
pulled down, and a snap at his throat brought 
the blood in a spurt and ended his life. Then 
followed the feasting. After the wolves had 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


211 


eaten all they could, came the kites and 
buzzards and ate all that remained. 

“You see,” said Father Grum when they 
were back in their den, stretched out for the 
night, “ you see we started the stag only two 
miles from here, but he ran hours before we 
turned him and chased him back this way so 
that our families could share in the feasting. 
He was a splendid runner, and fat, too.” And 
with a contented sigh. Father Grum closed one 
eye and went to sleep, doubtless to dream that 
he was again in a wild chase, leading the pack. 




212 





STORY OF THE PIED PIPER. 


(from browning’s poem.) 

Did you ever hear about the Pied Piper? 

A piper is a man who plays on a flute or 
some long straight instrument. This piper I 
am going to tell about wore a pied long coat; 
that is, it was a coat of two colors — half red 
and half yellow. 

Long ago the town of Hamelin, far over 
the sea, was full of rats. 

“ They fought the dogs, they killed the cats, 
they made nests inside men’s Sunday hats, 
and even spoiled the women’s chats,” because 
they were always squeaking and shrieking and 
squealing. 

At last all the people came to the mayor 


213 


214 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


and said : “ If you don’t find some way to get 
the rats out of our town we are going to turn 
you out, and get another mayor ; we can’t 
stand these pests any longer.” 

Just imagine how frightened the poor 
mayor was. He didn’t want to be turned out. 
He called the council together and they talked 
and talked and talked, but not one rat left the 
town ; rats are not afraid of talk. 

Presently some one rapped at the door of 
the council room. “ Bless us ! ” said the mayor, 
'‘what’s that? I wonder if it’s a rat. Come 
in ! ” he called out. 

Then the door opened and the funniest look- 
ing man they had ever seen came in. He had 
on a long coat ; half of it was yellow and half 
of it was red, and the man himself was so tall 
and so thin that he looked like a long stick 
with clothes hung on it. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


215 


The men looked at him in astonishment, 
but he came up to the mayor s desk and said : 
“ Please your honor, I have a charm by which 
I am able to make any animals in the world 
follow me wherever I go. In one place I got 
all the bats out of the country, and in another 
I rid the people of gnats which were thicker 
than are the leaves of the trees ; If I will rid 
your town of rats, will you give me a 
thousand guilders ? ” 

“ A thousand guilders ? ” cried the mayor 
and the council in one breath ; “ we will give 
you fifty thousand if you will do it.” 

The pied piper smiled softly to himself and 
stepped out into the street. He put his pipe 
to his lips and blew three shrill notes, when — 
wonder of wonders ! the rats came tumbling 
out of the houses. 


216 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


“ Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats. 
Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats, 
Grave old plodders, gay young friskers. 
Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins. 

Families by tens of dozens. 

Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives. 

Followed the piper for their lives.” 

He kept blowing away on his pipe and they 
danced and jumped and hopped along like a 
jolly crowd of school boys following a circus 
parade. Soon they came to the Weser river. 
The piper stepped into the water, and if those 
rats didn’t every single one of them tumble 
in after him, and of course they were all 
drowned. 

Oh, how glad the people were ! The mayor 
shouted out, “ Go ring all the bells in all 
the church steeples for joy; stop up all the 
rat holes everywhere, and you shall have a 
feast.” 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


217 


But while they were making such a joyful 
time, suddenly the piper stood before them : 
“ Please pay me my thousand guilders,” he 
said. 

Now Hamelin must have been a very queer 
city, for what do you think ? They hadn’t 
even a thousand guilders, and you remember 
they had promised him fifty thousand if he 
only would rid them of the rats. 

The mayor and the council looked very 
foolish, but one of the men said, “The rats are 
dead. We saw them sink in the river. They 
can’t come to life again; come, piper, take 
fifty guilders and call it even.” 

The piper’s face grew very dark and he said 
sternly, “ Don’t trifle with me.” But still they 
did not pay him. 

Then he turned haughtily round and the 
skirts of his red and yellow coat swung out 


218 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


in the breeze as he walked into the street. 
He put his pipe to his lips once more and 
blew. 

And then — oh, what a sad thing happened ! 

The dear little children came running out 
of all the houses. 

“ Little boys and little girls 
With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls, 
Hopping and skipping, ran merrily after 
The wonderful music with shouting and 
laughter,” 

until they came to the side of the mountain, 
and then a magic door flew open — and the 
piper stepped in, and all the children after 
him. When every one of them had gone in, 
that door closed up so tightly that not even a 
bird s eye could see where it had opened. 

Oh, such sorrow and weeping as there was 
in Hamelin. The mayor sent messengers east, 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


219 


west, north, and south, to look for the piper, 
and to tell him he should have all the gold he 
wanted if he would only come back and bring 
the children behind him. But, alas! they could 
never find the piper, and the children never 
came back. 




FEATHERED FRIENDS. 


One day a lady bought some chickens from 
a farmer. He took them out of his wagon 
and put them into a coop near the barn. One 
of the chicks was so small that he got out 
between the slats of the coop. He went peep- 
ing about the yard and did not eat or drink 
for two days. He looked very weak and the 
lady thought he would die. 


220 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


221 


She had a pet canary bird in the house. 
Every morning she let him go out of his cage 
and take his bath on the porch. He was hop- 
ping about out there as merry as a lark, while 
the little chicken was peeping faintly in the 
grass below the porch. 

All at once the lady saw “ Goldie,’* hopping 
down the steps. She watched him. He 
hopped along right up to where the little 
chicken stood. “ Chirp, chirp, chirp,” said 
Goldie, and made a dab with his beak at the 
chicken. 

“ Peep, peep, peep,” said poor little chick, 
and made a dab at Goldie with his beak. 

“ Chirp, chirp, chirp,” said the bird again, 
and, “ Peep, peep, peep,” answered chicken. 
Then they made more dabs with their beaks 
toward each other and seemed to be talking 
very fast. 


222 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


The lady understood English and German 
and French, and maybe some more languages, 
but she couldn’t understand what those birds 
said. She could see what they did, though, 
and this is what it was. That canary came 
hopping back up the steps and the chicken 
followed close behind. The canary went into 
its cage and the chicken stepped in after it, 
and pretty soon it was eating seeds and drink- 
ing water with Goldie, just for all the world as 
if it had come to a tea-party. It did not offer 
to go home when the party was over, but kept 
right on staying, until it got fat, and thus 
happy. 

They lived together in the cage until the 
chicken was too large to go in at the door. 
Then a roost was made for it close to the hook 
where the cage hung, so that the friends 
might be near each other at night. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


223 


Often the bird would throw seed down out 
of his cage to the chicken; and sometimes the 
chicken brought a worm in from the yard and 
shared it with Goldie. 





THE SCHOOL FOR RATS. 

The farmer’s barn was full of the mischiev- 
ous little fellows. When the farmer had the 
horses out in the field and everything was 
quiet, Mrs. Farmer would sometimes look out 
the window and see eight or nine at once, 
playing tag on the watering-trough. “ Right in 
broad daylight, too,” said Mrs. Farmer. “ We 
must have a cat.” That was why the farmer 


224 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


225 


rode over to Neighbor Plenty’s that night and 
came back with two young cats in a wheat 
sack. 

They did not seem a bit homesick, but ate 
all the bowl of milk which Mrs. Farmer 
carried out to them the next morning, and 
played in the barn and yard as if they had 
always lived in them. 

That night, when the cats were sound 
ash.'ep, all the rats held a council in the hen- 
house. Mr. Bob-tail Rat stood on an old 
peach basket and kept order. He said to the 
others : “ Friends, and fellow rats : two great 
monsters have this day been brought into the 
barn to keep us from playing our games, from 
eating our meals, and from having any liberty 
or enjoyment in life. We older rats are not 
afraid of these monsters for we know better 
than to come out of our hiding places when 


226 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


they are around; but the younger ones will be 
caught, for they do not know the cunning of 
men and of cats. We need, and must have, a 
school to teach them how to keep out of 
danger. 

“ All of you who wish to have a school, and 
who will come to it regularly, without playing 
truant, give three squeaks.” 

All the rats, young and old, squeaked, 
and so loudly that the cats woke out of 
their sleep. But old Mr. Bob-tail heard them 
stir and sprang from the peach basket with 
a scream while the whole company scam- 
pered to their hiding places so quickly that 
when the fastest cat got to the hen house, 
there was not even the tail of a rat in 
sight. 

The next morning there was a sign hanging 
in the very darkest corner of the loft over the 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


227 


carriage house. On it was some beautiful 
writing, as follows : 

''An Education in Ten Easy Lessons!'' 

"How to Eool the Cat ! " 

"Miss Long-face Rat, Teacher." 

As early as seven o’clock the rats began to 
come to school, and before eight there were 
about a hundred in the loft. 

Miss Long-face had only one rat in each 
class, and all the others played games while 
they waited for their turn. They thought it 
was jolly. The teaching was good, and the 
rats learned their lessons so well, that the cats 
could hardly ever catch one of them. 

Mrs. Farmer scolded them roundly, and 
told Mr. Farmer that they ate more than they 
were worth and were of no use at all as 
“ mousers ; ” but you see she did not know 


228 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


anything at all about Miss Long-faces most 
excellent school, else she would not have 
blamed the poor cats. 

Education is a fine thing for men, and for 
rats, and for everybody, isn’t it ? 




A PICNIC IN BIRD SOCIETY. 


Meadow Lark was on the very highest tip- 
top of the very tallest orange tree in the grove, 
and he was singing a melody that was as 
sweet as the scent of the orange blossoms 
which filled all the air. Meadow Lark is 
•usually seen in the grassy meadows, but this 
morning he and his mate had sought a more 
lofty place and found it in the orange tree-top. 
“Summer is here, summer is here,” he was 
singing, and his mate was echoing, “ Hear, 
hear, hear.” 


229 


230 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


A happy thought, born of blossoms, and the 
sweet June air, and their own loving spirits, 
had come to the meadow larks only yesterday, 
and the)^ had flown into the high orange tree, 
calling all the other birds to come and hear it. 

Soon the little air-voyagers came flying 
from every direction and wishing each other, 
“ Good morning, good morning, good morn- 
ing,” with as many different sorts of bows and 
courtesies as real people could have made. 
Among the last to come was the beautiful 
Red Tanager, and he was singing the same 
old song, “ Wait, wait, wait for me.” He 
scarcely took time to quiet the flutter of his 
wings after he had taken a perch near Meadow 
Lark, before he began to talk. “ Meadow 
Lark,” he said, “ May I ask you to hasten the 
business in hand just a little, because wife and 
I have an engagement to go with some of our 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


231 


young cousins to a grain field down in the 
valley. We start at high noon.” 

I think, as perhaps you do, that it would 
have been quite as polite for Red Tanager to 
come to the meeting early, if he were in such 
haste to get away; but Meadow Lark is a 
bird of such very sweet spirit that I suppose 
he never even thought of such a thing ; birds 
are different from people, aren’t they? 

Meadow Lark only lifted up his wonderful 
voice and sang again, “ Summer is here, sum- 
mer is here,” before he said, “ Dear Bird 
Cousins, what do you think about having a 
flying picnic to the Mira Valley? We could 
fly up in the early morning and fly back at 
sunset, and have a fine time.” 

No sooner had Meadow Lark ended, than 
all the birds began to chatter at once, exactly 
as people do ; but Red Tanager fluttered his 


232 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


wings and asked for the floor, and finally got 
a chance to be heard. “ Meadow Lark,” he said, 
with a low bow of courtesy, “ your plan is 
delightful; how many birds shall we invite?” 

“ Oh, let’s make it a small picnic and invite 
only our own set,” spoke up Yellow Tanager, 
without waiting even to give Meadow Lark a 
chance to reply. 

I suppose he meant by his “ own set ” those 
who thought they were “ high-fliers ; ” not at 
all because they mounted up farthest toward 
the blue sky, but because they wore — oh, 
such gay colors, and were always stared at 
when they went out for a fly. 

It was not very thoughtful in Yellow Tana- 
ger to speak like that, for on a branch quite 
near sat a wood thrush and some wrens. Red 
Tanager looked at his yellow cousin reprov- 
ingly, but he did not speak. 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


235 


Mocking Bird sprang blithely from a lower 
to a higher branch of the tree where he 
perched and said, “ Yes, oh, yes, it will be gay 
to have a flying picnic, and I think as Yellow 
Tanager does, that it will be rather more 
agreeable to have only our own set.” Then 
he fluttered his pretty brown wings with their 
white edges, and flew to another branch, for 
the mocking bird does not like to stay long in 
one spot and he likes the highest places. 

You know, of course, that the mocking bird 
does not wear gay clothes like the others of 
the high-flying set, but he had got into it 
because they wanted his music for their hops. 
If you keep your eyes open, you will find that 
people sometimes do things like that ; take 
men and women into their company because 
they can get something out of them — music, 
or drives or dinners or something. 


234 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


Oriole said, Well, I like all the birds and 
I think it will be nice to invite them all ; ” 
whereupon Yellow Tanager murmured some- 
thing about being “ genteel and not common.” 

The gossips said that the yellow tanagers, 
even though they wore such gay colors, were 
not always true gentle-folk of bird society ; 
but that society tolerated them because they 
were cousins to the red tanagers, and because 
there were so many of them they could not, 
easily, be “ cut.” 

“ The smaller the picnic, the more cherries 
there will be for each one ; ” said the sparrow. 

The sparrow would better have said nothing 
than to have said that, for every bird knew 
that the sparrow liked to eat better than to 
do anything else in the world, and even birds 
do not admire a glutton. There are other 
reasons, too, for not admiring the sparrow ; he 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


235 


is quarrelsome, and he will sometimes take 
what does not belong to him ; but he always 
goes everywhere and does not seem to care 
whether he is wanted there or not. It is rather 
fortunate to have such a disposition, because 
one never feels hurt or sorry about anything 
that happens. 

The wood thrush and the wrens had said 
nothing at all, but they were thinking that 
they would hop away under the trees as if 
they were doing it for fun, and when they had 
hopped far enough to get out of reach of 
Meadow Larks eye, they would fly to their 
own friends, who were never rude to them. 

Before they had time to carry out their plan. 
Meadow Larks beautiful voice was heard 
again. Now, you must know that Meadow 
Lark was the only one of all the birds that 
had any real reason to consider himself supe- 


236 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


rior to the others. He sang better than even 
•Patti, though she gets a thousand dollars an 
evening ; and all his ancestors had been great 
musicians, so that kings delighted to hear 
them ; and their morals and their manners had 
been above reproach for a thousand years. 

The remarks which Yellow Tanager and 
Sparrow had made were not even heard by 
Meadow Lark, for he and his mate had been 
flying around from tree to tree and winning a 
promise from every bird to come to the picnic 
without fail. Not one could resist Meadow 
Lark’s sweet spirit and presently he flew again 
to the top of his tree singing, “ Summer is 
here, summer is here.” At once all the bird 
chattering ceased ; then he said, “ All the 
birds have promised to come to the picnic.” 
There was so much pleasure in his tone that 
the others were filled with joy only to hear 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


237 


him ; and a great chorus of song burst from 
all the birds, even those who had talked about 
having only their own set, joining in it gayly. 

The picnic was to be the very next day, for 
birds do not have to tire themselves all out 
baking cake and spreading sandwiches and 
getting ready for things. 

You may be sure it was a rare success. 
Meadow Lark flew now with the wrens, now 
with the mocking birds, and he did not forget 
to take very kind notice of sparrow, who 
really behaved quite well, for he had on his 
company manners, and did not eat more than 
twice as much as any of the others. 

The Yellow Tanager was rather ashamed of 
his haughty talk when he saw Meadow Lark’s 
beautiful spirit and he, too, did all he could to 
make everybody happy, so that he quite forgot 
he had ever had a set. Isn’t it wonderful 


238 


ANIMAL WORLD. 


what one little bird could do for the happiness 
of bird society ? 

The cherries were large and black and sweet 
and plentiful; so when the birds flew home at 
sunset they all agreed that Meadow Lark’s 
picnic was lovely, and as each one tucked his 
head under his wing in his own little nest, and 
made ready for sleep, the last thought of every 
bird was, “ Dear Meadow Lark ! ” 



HOMELESS TIP EINDS A HOME. 


Tip was a homeless, neglected, sorry-looking 
terrier. Where he came from nobody knew; 
where he got his food nobody knew ; in fact, 
he looked as if he got precious little food any- 
where. He came sometimes to the steps of 
the police station and looked in longingly, but 
none of the men had ever invited him, and he 
was too polite to enter without being asked. 

Tip sat on the curb in the sunshine one 
morning in April. The sun was warm and as 
he had nothing else to do he fell into a doze. 

In the yard just behind him a house was 
being painted. Mr. Caspar, the painter, had 
painted the front and sides and had gone 
round to paint the rear. He climbed up the 


239 










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